A number of lecturers and education staff from the Universitas Indonesia (UI) Vocational Education Program initiated the formation of VCoop Mart, a business unit managed by the Trengginas Adhi Mahakarya Cooperative. Coop Mart was established as a minimarket facility on campus as well as an educational support activity unit for students. VCoop Mart partners with PT Inti Cakrawala Citra (Indogrosir) with a scheme from the Outlet Minimarket Indogrosir (OMI) which has existed since 2001. VCoop Mart has been operating since it was inaugurated on Monday (13/2) by the Director of the UI Vocational Education Program, Padang Wicaksono, S.E, Ph.D.
Located in the UI Vocational Business Center Building, the UI Depok Campus, makes the existence of the VCoop Mart strategic and easily accessible to UI Vocational academics and the surrounding community. The vision of VCoop Mart is not only to focus on buying and selling activities, but also as a teaching factory and as a place to provide training in the field of entrepreneurship to UI Vocational students.
“Based on the high demand for the presence of minimarkets in the UI Vocational environment, we seize this opportunity by presenting VCoop Mart. We also concoct so that VCoop Mart can participate and contribute to the education process as a support unit for educational activities for students,” said Faizah Abdullah, S.Ft., M.Biomed., a lecturer in the Physiotherapy study program who is CEO of Cooperative Services Trengginas Adhi Mahakarya and Head of VCoop.
“As part of applying public relations knowledge, our students work closely with VCoop Mart in conceptualizing the right branding and marketing techniques so as to optimize the existence of VCoop Mart,” said Head of the Public Relations Study Program, Mareta Maulidiyanti, S.Sos., M.M.
“VCoop Mart also aspires to hone an entrepreneurial spirit for the UI Vocational academic community, especially students who want to do entrepreneurship. We see that students are quite creative in entrepreneurship as is often done when raising funds to support student association activities. So, we open opportunities in the reseller scheme for students by buying goods at wholesale prices at VCoop Mart, then reselling them at market prices so they can profit from the sales,” said Gunawan Wicaksono, A.Md.OT., S.K.M., M.Si., lecturer in the Occupational Therapy study program who is also the Operational Manager of the Adhi Mahakarya Trengginas Cooperative.
Utilizing digital payments, various service facilities are provided by VCoop Mart including basic necessities like those often found in minimarkets in the form of cooking oil, rice, and children’s diapers. VCoop Mart operates Monday-Friday 07.30-20.00 and Saturday 07.30-13.00. Apart from the VCoop Mart, the Trengginas Adhi Mahakarya Services Cooperative also manages business units such as catering and other services in cooperative development.
