Up the staircase and to the right, in Hofstra University’s Guthart Hall, sits a small, student-run storefront fit with apparel for students and faculty of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business.
The Zarb Store sells sweatshirts, sweatpants, pajama pants, T-shirts and lion stuffed animals.
“We try to price our merchandise as [low] as we can,” said Prahald Peri, sophomore accounting major and the Zarb Store’s chief financial officer. “We have prices ranging from $15 for our little plushies [and] up to $50 for our quarter zips and our crew necks. It’s truly just how affordable we can make it while still making money because, obviously, we’re a business.”
The student employers at the Zarb Store are responsible for budget allocation.
“We buy our own merch with our own money. We sell it, we market it, we do accounting, finance and everything,” Peri said. “It’s just a great experience for business majors to get to dip their feet into the fields that they want. It really allows you to see what you want to do with your career.”
Students join the store as interns before moving up to manager positions.
“It’s really just how ambitious you want to be. Last semester, I completely created a whole new role of chief financial officer, which is now what I do. I run the accounting and finance teams,” Peri said.
In order to create his own position, Peri approached his dean and mentioned he wanted more responsibility.
“We worked together. We worked with Andrew [Kern], our store coordinator, and we just created the role,” Peri said. “I haven’t done much yet, but I’m excited to see what I can do.”
The Zarb Store is overseen by the Zarb School of Business Dean’s Office. Senior Associate Dean and Adjunct Associate Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics Brian Caligiure encouraged Peri to start a new position and helps to manage the workload for students.
“He’s our go-to point, especially for anything finance and accounting,” Peri said. “He’s the person I work with the most. He really is the only faculty that works with us. Everything else is completely done by the students.”
The students open the store, pick shifts, buy merchandise, tag it for sale and complete their own inventory.
“We have two main inventory systems. We have Clover, which is our point of sales, that really helps us collect payments and deposit them,” Peri said. “Then, we have Thrive, which is our new inventory system that we implemented last semester. It helps us barcode all of our merch, just to make sure that everything is accounted for.”
Students learn the inventory systems when they are hired as interns. Some business classes require students to work a shift at the store. This way, students receive hands-on experience outside of the classroom.
Most students decide to take a part-time position after working the one shift. The store adapts to each new employee.
“It’s all about what you want to do and the experience that you want to have in the Zarb Store. We’re completely open to whatever students want,” Peri said.
After Hofstra revealed their new logo and branding on May 1, 2025, the Zarb Store had to adapt to the change, along with the rest of the university.
“The biggest operational challenge came last semester. We had to completely overhaul [merch with the old logo], tag everything and make sure everything was accounted for,” Peri said.
Merchandise with the old logo is heavily discounted at 70% off. Students can visit the store periodically during the day.
“Our hope is that we can be open from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It really just depends on if people can cover shifts or not,” Peri said. “We want to be open as much as possible. We want to attract as many people as possible. Our merch is great, so we want people to buy it.”
The store typically sees around five customers per shift, but it depends on foot traffic each day.
“This is our fourth year of operations, so we’re still trying to get our feet running,” Peri said.
The completely student-run business is a highlight on Peri’s resume.
“It’s just the amount of experience you get at such a young age inside college. Employers, they look at that, and they’re like, ‘Wow, you know what you’re doing. You have the experience already. You’re able to step into roles much higher than other people who may not have the same experience as you,’” Peri said.
