Students spend record amount

The famous Co-Operative store on Pennsylvania Road has reported record takings on the Sunday of Freshers Week.

A Co-op statement suggested that they ‘saw a peak in sales on Sunday 16 September as many new and returning students arrived in the area to start the new term’.

Whilst many students have taken advantage of the store’s very convenient location for booze runs late at night or a pack of cigarettes on the way into town, it appears as if many students are using the store for more wholesome shopping. A Co-op spokesperson said ‘although alcohol was popular, it was on the whole incorporated into bigger, more general shops’. Traditionally the store has almost exclusively been used for small-scale shops, however it seems that many students were doing ‘large shops amounting to £40 or £50’.

The reasons for this may simply be laziness on behalf of the students, a lack of viable alternatives, or a genuine belief that co-op is the best place to shop. Co-op suggests that their surge in takings is down to ‘the nice atmosphere in store… that make students feel very welcome’, and their ‘ethical trading policies’.

However one Exeter student, a Victoria Street resident suggested that the reasons are entirely down to location; ‘the Co-op is simply the closest shop,’ he said, ‘it wouldn’t make a difference who was running it, or what it looked it like, it’s just easy’.