Hello Engineers! For this update I would like to talk about one of the Engineering Society’s most exciting new services that falls under my portfolio: RidgidWare.
On October 7, the Engineering Society opened its own electronics component and hardware shop, RidgidWare. The concept for RidgidWare was created over the past 8 months by Joe Kinsella and Ali Amin, and the two of them along with the Engineering Society have been working to launch the service ever since. The purpose of RidgidWare is to bring hardware and electronics components to campus in a friendly environment where students can browse and shop for all of their needs. There are very few places in the vicinity of campus (the closest store is Cambridge!) where one can purchase these types of components, and ordering online can often take a long time to wait for the parts to come in. Whether for class projects, capstones, or personal projects, the goal of RidgidWare is to offer the parts that students need, and make them easily available.
The store operates similar to Novelties, in that it is open over the lunch hour in CPH Foyer, from 11:30 to 1:30pm. Currently the store is just open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the hours will be expanding as demand increases. The store has everything from resistors to LEDs, Arduinos, breadboards, and soldering irons,and much more. Thanks to a contribution from Dean Sullivan the store was able to purchase the start-up inventory, which can be viewed on the EngSoc Website (engsoc.uwaterloo.ca) under Services, Student Spaces and Stores, RidgidWare. We also have lots of information on the Facebook page http://facebook.com/ridgidware.
This is a new service, so it is starting small; however we are definitely going to be expanding the items available for sale over the coming terms. We would love to hear what you would like to see offered in the store past the initial inventory. Send an email to ridgidware@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca, or fill out the feedback form at bit.ly/RWFeedback.
The Engineering Society is very excited to offer this new service to students, and I hope that you find it to be beneficial to your needs! If you have any general feedback or suggestions for the running of the store, or any finance questions in general, feel free to email me at vpfinance.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca.
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