Airline High School Students Run Their Own Store to Build Real-World Business Skills
By Cameron Jones
Published: Oct. 16, 2026 at 10:42 PM GMT+2 | Updated: 40 minutes ago
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BOSSIER PARISH, La. (KSLA) - Airline High School students are getting a hands-on lesson in business through the Viking Exchange, a student-run store designed to help prepare them for the workforce and life after graduation.
The store sells concessions, school supplies, and Airline spirit gear to the school’s approximately 1,700 students. But the program goes beyond selling products. Students manage inventory, place orders, provide customer service, maintain the store, and handle the daily responsibilities of running a business.
Brad Winstead, an Airline teacher and coach, serves as the school advisor and sponsor. He explains, “It’s practical education and instruction. What’s taught in the abstract and the principles of business classes—inventory, receiving, the inventory accounting process, workplace safety—those things, which in a traditional classroom setting are taught in the abstract, this allows us to teach it in three dimensions.”
Airline High School students and faculty hold ribbon-cutting for the opening of the Viking Exchange, a student-run store serving the school's 1,700 students.
(KSLA)
Airline High School students are learning business hands-on through the Viking Exchange, a student-run store serving the school's 1,700 students with concessions, supplies, and spirit gear.
(KSLA)
Student workers prepare to open the Viking Exchange, welcoming classmates shopping for concessions, spirit gear, and supplies.
(KSLA)
The Viking Exchange proposal aligns with customer service and business-of-retail credentials from the National Retail Federation. Students can earn experience with customer interaction, inventory control, workplace safety, and business operations.
Winstead notes that students also learn the small details that matter in a professional setting, including how to present themselves while serving customers.
The store is managed by students, with school staff providing guidance. Maxwell Moore serves as the Viking Exchange store manager. He shares, “This is a great opportunity for everybody to gain business experience. Whenever they want to get in the workforce, they can join the business industry.”
Moore earned the manager position by working consistently, showing leadership, helping with inventory, and making sure the store is clean and organized—even coming in on weekends.