File Photo
Students can purchase new and used computers from the store.
Liandre De la Uso
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
For two years, the Tech Store has been providing students with a place to buy and repair electronic devices to better prepare them for the increasingly digital academic landscape that college presents.
After operating next to Duran Welcome Center since August 2016, the Tech Store is planned to move to Room 207 of Moody Learning Center during the spring semester.
“When they opened up the store, their vision was to have it next to the welcome center so that when students are getting ready for school they can come and walk over and check out the store,” Ana Ortega, who has been the store manager since 2016, said, “(the Moody Center) is more centralized and definitely has the highest foot traffic on campus.”
When the transition from the welcome center to Moody is completed, the move will have been a year in the making.
“We were having meetings about this all summer, and we landed on spring for our target date,” Ortega said.
Ortega believes that the move to Moody will bring about positive changes to the store’s accessibility to students.
“The first week of the semester, we did our pop-up shop (in the Moody Center)” Ortega said. “In that week alone, we kept track of how many people came in, and we had a total of 307 students. So that’s a significant difference.”
During the week of the pop-up shop, the walk-in traffic and repairs also increased, and Ortega believes this is a sign the move will be beneficial to the store.
Aaron Prevott, technical services manager for the Tech Store, is in charge of overseeing repair services and is also excited for the move in spring.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Prevott said. “We want to be there for our students and we want to make sure that they’re ready for class.”
Currently, the Tech Store uses the same space for inventory and repairs.
“We will have a more secured area for those repairs,” Prevott said. “Right now, just because of how constrained we are in this store, we do have to share our inventory with our receiving and repair area. So (more space) will just be one of those things that will be welcome.”
The Tech Store offers tech-related products and services to students, faculty and staff at reduced prices. After the move, loaner laptops, formerly available only on the seventh floor of Moody, will now be available for rent at the tech store.
All students need is a valid driver’s license and a student ID to rent equipment, which includes laptops and tablets, Ortega said.
“We believe that we have a lot to offer our students, and I hope to that they see the value of us being here,” Ortega said.
The tech store offers new and used products and provides low-cost repairs to the community and free diagnostics to anyone who brings their device in.
The tech store is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
For more information, call 210-486-0931.
