Wisconsin-based Designer Victoria Van Asten organized this program eight years ago as a way to involve teachers and students in entrepreneurship education. She provides the training and most of the inventory for the shops. She says it is much like a franchise in the beginning, but after a year or two the students become more entrepreneurial. Some of them make products in their classrooms and sell them to other schools for their Keepers Shops. The shops are open for two weeks before Christmas.
Elementary schools bus their classes to the shop at their scheduled time.
Each young shopper is paired with a shop helper to make choices of inexpensive and attractive gifts for their families and friends. This is a new experience for both the high school students and their young shoppers. This idea has become a successful community project as well. Local organizations and businesses donate all kinds of resources to the Shops. For those young shoppers who have little or no funds available there are always local donations to help them out.