USASA is trialling an op shop at The University of South Australia’s City West campus until the end of July. If the shop can get enough donations and volunteers, it will provide long-term cost-of-living relief to students, with potential to expand across other UniSA campuses. (Image: USASA President Oliver Shephard-Bayly in the City West op shop. Source: Alana Pahor)
By Alana Pahor | @bookish_alana
To help ease cost-of-living pressures for students, The University of South Australia Student Association (USASA) is trialling an op shop at the City West campus.
USASA President Oliver Shephard-Bayly said the trial was proposed by university staff and the student board during their 2023 strategic planning for the next two years.
“We wanted to do more to help with the cost-of-living crisis before the merger, and an op shop was one of the measures that came into that,” he said.
“The clothing is sustainable, it’s cheap, it’s an affordable measure for students.”
USASA Commercial Manager Louise Doyle said the op shop is in a 12-week trial period, which will conclude at the end of July.
“We’ve had a really positive response from students so far,” she said.
“I remember on the first day, a student came in with a budget of $40. She ended up buying three items for $14, and she was really happy to have all this leftover money to use for other things she needed.”
Doyle said they try to keep clothing prices to either $3, $5 or $7.
“If there’s something that’s brand new with tags, it might be closer to $10 or $20, but $20 is really going to be our cap,” she said.
“Then we’ve got shoes, accessories, books and textbooks, those types of things as well. Books are $3 to $5.”
Doyle said items are sourced from student and staff donations, as well as through a collaboration with Save The Children.
“We’ve got a bin out the front of the shop, in the Jeffrey Smart Building and in the student lounge here at City West where students and staff can donate,” she said.
“We’ve got donation bins as part of the USASA shops on [the City East, Magill and Mawson Lakes] campuses as well.”
Doyle says they are partially reliant on Save The Children to sustain their clothing supply as they don’t currently receive enough donations from staff and students.
“We definitely need more donations [from staff and students]. Menswear is a really big one that we need,” she said.
Shephard-Bayly said students can also support the op shop by volunteering.
“We’ve done an initial callout for op shop volunteers and around 44 people were interested,” he said.
“It’s good to see the ownership that students have in it — it’s run by the volunteers.”
Doyle said: “We’ve been a bit slow to get donations and volunteers in, but I think once we’re up and running with that, the sky’s the limit.”
Shephard-Bayly said they hope to expand the op shop to other campuses in future.
“The main limitations at the moment are the lack of space we have in other campuses’ USASA shops,” he said.
“It’s a matter of working with the university’s facilities management to try to expand the space.
Shephard-Bayly said the more successful this shop becomes, the more likely they will be able to roll it out on other campuses.
“We just need to get this one up and running, and make sure it’s sustainable first. So, the more support we get, the better.”
The USASA op shop is located at City West in room 19, level 2 of the Barbara Hanrahan Building. You can shop and donate between 10am and 4pm from Monday to Friday.
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