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Student agencies relatively unaffected by economic crunch

“The economic downturn has not had a significant impact on our business,” said Sara Oon ’10, the manager of the Tiger Food Delivery Agency.

Some agencies can even boast record-high sales in these tough economic conditions.

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“According to [our supplier’s] representative, sales are down in all schools in this region, but Princeton is at an all-time high,” said Anthony Soroka ’10, the manager of the Rings and Graduation Agency.

The Student Design Agency (SDA), a two-year-old student agency that makes print, web and graphic designs, is also on track to generate more revenue than it did in its first year. “Business has been better than normal,” SDA manager Alyce Tzue ’10 said.

“Due to a high demand, and since a lot of our clients have available funding, we have increased our rates from last year to this year, but it has nothing to do with the economic crisis,” she added. “We cater to clients such as academic departments and student organizations that have funding from project boards, so they don’t have less funding [as a result of the economic crisis].”

The Moving and Storage Agency is not currently worried about the crisis either, as it earned enough income from storage last summer to remain solvent.

“I don’t think our agency will be affected as of yet because all of our revenue was generated last spring,” said Brett Wilson ’09, manager of the Moving and Storage Agency.

Though some student agencies have suffered from losses in profits, many are not attributing these losses to the current economic crisis.

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“Coincidentally, I received almost no orders during the height of the financial crisis, but [to cut costs] I also began modifying my advertising at that same time so that parents were no longer receiving mailings from me,” Brad Stanger ’11, manager of the care-package student agency Special Occasions, said in an e-mail.

Tiger Foods also attributes its decrease in sales to factors other than the crisis.

“There have been other changes, beyond our control, that could have affected business more than the economic downturn,” Oon said. “Specifically, from this year on, the University no longer permits student agencies to accept charges to student accounts. I believe that hurt our business more than the economic downturn did.”

Student agencies are not counting themselves safe. Conscious of the effect that the economic crisis has had on a wide variety of businesses, agency managers are aware that their agencies may still be affected by changes in the global market.

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“Things can change because gold prices are going up, and our prices should go up, which might decrease the sales,” Soroka said, referring to the rings his agency sells.

Employment trends also have not been consistent across agencies. While some reported a rise in job applicants, others are still looking to fill positions.

“We’ve definitely had more people inquiring about employment opportunities but have been able to take all of them in,” Oon said.

Soroka, on the other hand, noted that his agency is still looking for more employees. “We have less employees this year. Maybe the economic state will help us find more.”