“The General Store was founded in 1979 by 2 students looking to buy assorted goods at a reduced cost. The store is now a cooperatively run non-profit and remains student run and owned.”
A sign that hangs above the General Store’s, or the G-Store’s, merchandise reads exactly this. On any given weekday, students can walk into the G-Store from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and find this paint-splattered sign as they browse the store looking for snacks, art supplies, school supplies, old video games…
The list goes on. As concise as this message is, the history of the G-Store is more crazy and convoluted than any sign could summarize. Police raids, sit-ins, and restraining orders against the school’s administration color the long history of the General Store. Now, in 2023, the General Store has just started recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
As I sit down with Jordan Cathcart and Alistair Vizuet on the couches that occupy the front end of the General Store, it is clear that not only are they coworkers, they are friends. While Jordan is a current full member of the G-Store and Alistair is a former member and current alum volunteer, they work closely with not only each other, but the other student workers at the store as well.
Jordan, a 3rd year Visual Arts major, and Alistair, who works full-time on campus post graduation, still find time in their busy schedules to work multiple shifts at the G-Store every week; you can also find both of them at the many events the G-Store hosts each quarter.
I interviewed them to see what the G-Store has in store for the future, and how it has learned from its past.
What are some ideals and themes that the G-Store represents?
Jordan Cathcart: For me, it definitely comes back to our motto, that the store is run by students, for students away from the university. I think that makes it more appealing to students, and also less corporate than other stores on campus. We’re more passionate about [running our store].
Alistair Vizuet: I think it’s also, like, showing the ability for students to create their own institutions at UCSD. We represent what students can do as a collective and we stand out as an example of a successful, non-hierarchical business. It represents that whichever group of students are running it, the core values still stay the same.
How is the G-Store different from when it started?
Vizuet: I think the biggest difference from when we initially started would have to be in what we sell. We’ve diverted from just the essentials…we sell more of a reflection of what students want, instead of just what students need. We stopped selling textbooks, and new clothes, which is significant since G-Store’s first purchase was jeans. I think the student art, thrift rack, and sex supplies are more representative of student culture. I also think the university doesn’t hate us as much. We’ve successfully renewed our lease agreement a handful of times. I think the campus administrators have finally recognized us as a successful institution.
One of the things the G-Store prides itself on is its independence from UCSD. How has the school responded to the G-Store’s presence on campus? Are there any specific events in G-Store history that come to mind?
Vizuet: Well there’s obviously the protest that was in the 90’s.
1992, to be specific.
Vizuet: Yeah. I think that was the time period in which the G-Store’s position was most threatened, when the campus was actively trying to remove the co-ops. Honestly, there hasn’t been any direct conflict with the university while I’ve been here, but we had to make some concessions, like we stopped selling cigarettes when the campus went smoke free. I’m assuming, compared to the 90’s, the university now has bigger things to worry about [He laughs]. Now there’s more colleges, more land, they probably care less about the Old Student Center. Given how corporate a lot of the campus feels, I’m guessing they recognize the benefits of not messing with the Old Student Center.
The G-Store is part of a collection of co-operatives that occupy the Old Student Center. How closely do the co-ops all work together?
Cathcart: We mainly communicate through a group chat we have with all the co-ops, but we’re also the place where everyone comes to pick up their mail. Sometimes we have meetings with all of them, or we do events with other co-ops. I think we could be doing more, as we’ve only ever been successful when we all work together.
Vizuet: Yeah, the way the co-ops interact varies year to year. It depends on each co-op’s personal relationships between their own employees, so the dynamics change with student turnover. Usually when it’s time for lease renewments we all band together [Both laugh]. But there’s a lot of times when we feel really independent from each other.
Did the G-Store suffer because of the pandemic?
Cathcart: Definitely. I got hired right as G-Store reopened… [pauses].
Vizuet: I think it was spring in 2021.
Cathcart: Yeah. I came in to look at the records during, what is now our peak hours, and no one was in here. And when I actually got hired, there were only 3 full members. Sometimes I’d have shifts where zero students would come in just because the entire school was online. We basically had to change how we run the store because we lost our entire customer base.
Vizuet: Yeah, I also came back when it reopened. Because we operate on razor thin margins to give students the lowest prices, our savings are usually low. But those tanked, along with our backstock and inventory due to the pandemic. We had to start from the ground up as our campus presence was almost gone.
What are some of the changes that had to be made to accommodate COVID-19?
Vizuet: We stopped paying people.
Cathcart: [Laughs] We’re almost back to the point when we can pay people though!
Vizuet: Right, well, it’s also hard to justify 11 hour days if you’re not paying. So we changed our hours as well.
Cathcart: We also had to cut down some accounts (accounts are inventory categories within the G-Store that are maintained by students working there). Some people left and just never said anything and didn’t come back. Our thrift rack was slow because we weren’t getting a lot of donations. We had to push a lot to get back into the public eye, like we really increased our social media presence. I think we’re back at that pre-pandemic point though, as we’re making multiple orders per week and the store is usually busy nowadays. We hire every quarter and we’d love to have new people working here.
The General Store is open Monday through Friday, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. You can find them on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok at @gstorecoop
Anna Norris is an Arts and Culture Writer for The Triton