By Eryn Pinksen
NAIT business student manages six brewery market stalls, applying classes and skills learned in program.
“It’s a lot of fun and definitely a lot of work,” said Ben Crothers about his summer staffing, managing and running farmer’s market stalls in the Edmonton Area for Red Deer’s Troubled Monk Brewery.
Crothers is in his 4th year at the JR Shaw School of Business and will graduate this fall with a major in marketing and a specialization in sales.
“I was thinking about it and there’s up to fifteen classes that directly applied to what I’m doing right now,” said Crothers. “And without that experience that I’ve got from NAIT, there’s no way that I would have been able to take this role on.”
“Definitely without NAIT, I don’t think I would be seeing the same success as I am with this.”
To incoming business students, Crothers encourages them to take in all that NAIT has to offer.
“This is such a unique school and you’re going to build connections with other students and instructors that you can’t get at other institutions,” said Crothers.
Working in a contracted position for the summer, Crothers has gained first-hand experience managing staff, coordinating business and putting his business classes, like Sales Management and Professional Selling Principles, into practice.
“I do a lot of forecasting how much product we’re going to need, ordering it all, inventory management, all the hiring and staffing and then actually being at the markets themselves,” said Crothers.
“And it’s such a good atmosphere there, such friendly people that are just so excited that now we’re allowed to sell beer at markets.”
Farmer’s markets are popular events in Edmonton where local artisans, farmers, breweries, bakeries and other small businesses are able to set up stalls to sell their merchandise. Some markets run year-round to accommodate their popularity.
Crothers ran six Troubled Monk Brewery market stalls around the Edmonton Area over the summer. He said one of the greatest values of a farmer’s market is having staff at the stalls talking about the product.
“You get to meet the Troubled Monk staff as opposed to going somewhere else where you would have someone else speaking for our product, said Crothers. “Now we actually have staff at these locations building brand awareness and really getting the name out there, which is great.”
