Andrew Scherch will never look at store shelves the same way again. After spending this week trying to figure out the right price to sell coffee for a scholarship competition, Scherch now knows there's a lot more to selling than he previously believed.
"I never thought of how these giant stores price their items," said Scherch, 17, of Regent Square, a senior at Pittsburgh Allderdice in Squirrel Hill. "Taking the perspective of someone who has to do the pricing changes how you look at things."
Students at three Allegheny County schools -- Pittsburgh Allderdice, The Neighborhood Academy, a private school Downtown, and Seton-La Salle High School in Mt. Lebanon -- will compete for $5,000 in scholarships and the chance to ring the NASDAQ closing bell in January. They, along with students from Kiski Area High School and Northern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center, will join seniors from eight other high schools across the nation in the fourth annual DemandTec Retail Challenge, an online contest requiring them to develop and present a merchandising plan for selling coffee and tea.
Locally, the program is sponsored by Giant Eagle, and the top teams from the region will present their project at the company's headquarters in O'Hara next month. Nationally, the competition is sponsored by California-based DemandTec, which creates software to help retailers better understand consumer demand.
That's essentially what students do in the competition. Each team is given a product; the goal: to earn more money than their competitors through inventory and pricing decisions.
"What we hope they get out of it ... is an appreciation for how math can be applied in real world situations," said Marc Dietz, vice-president of marketing for DemandTec. "Math is often one of those subjects where you think, 'Where am I going to need this?' Here, they learn about potential opportunities for careers using math."
One Pittsburgh teacher is enthusiastic about the competition because of the team concept it promotes.
"When we get out in the real world, we're not on an island by ourselves," said Roseann Casciato, mathematics department head at Allderdice. "In this competition, they're changing that product every day and have to make decisions together."
The competition runs through Nov. 6, after which the three highest-grossing teams from the region will present their findings to DemandTec and Giant Eagle officials.
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