Have you ever missed a pop-up because you were stuck on campus? With Bearcat Thrift, the pop-up experience has been brought to Baruch College. 

The Bearcat Thrift is a student-run marketplace, run by the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship. Its pop-ups are the place to find cute clothes, funky trinkets and free ramen. 

Not only can students shop here, but they can sell and donate items as well — a cornerstone of entrepreneurship. 

My Anh Phan, Baruch sophomore, accounting major and Bearcat Thrift co-founder, came up with “Bearcat Thrift” her freshman year with Baruch College Entrepreneurship Organization. 

On a quest to find ventures, Phan thought of her friends and their mixed experiences with selling on Depop. This, combined with her love for pop-up events, gave her an idea. Not long after, Bearcat Thrift was born and they got straight to work. “I love pop-ups. I’m a big freebie person, so I thought having an on-campus marketplace was pretty cool,” Phan told The Ticker. 

Bearcat Thrift hosted their first event in February, with just over 10 sellers and a great turnout, validating her and her co-founder, Manish Kumar’s, idea of bringing the store to the students. Their journey doesn’t stop there, going from an almost 500-person turnout in the fall to a turnout of over 800 this semester. 

“We definitely want to do it a bit more long-term,” Phan said on the future of Bearcat Thrift. 

She followed up with her aspirations for the student-run marketplace. Phan added, “Hopefully after our incubation [Lawrence N. Field Center] we can continue in terms of maybe hosting other pop-ups on different CUNY campuses and opening a little place on Baruch.”

Since coming to Baruch, 19-year-old Phan has attended an abundance of pop-ups in places like Flatiron Plaza and Union Square, where her obsession of free things came to fruition.  “I attended a lot of pop-ups since coming here to Baruch,” she said. “It was kind of like realizing that there was so much opportunity.” 

Phan also won the Baruch CEO pitch competition with her idea of an app called “Popped-Up,” which gives live updates on pop-up events. Using her $1,500 prize money from the competition, alongside her personal savings, she collaborated with brands like Red Bull, AWAKE Chocolate and RISE to host a summer event catered to Generation Z that had over 500 attendees.

Their recent two-day event with Bearcat Thrift had quite the turnout, with $5 henna, $2 sweet treats and student vendors socializing with buyers. They provided a changing room for try-ons and closed out all purchases with a free batch of ramen. Students really got a bang for their buck and a dope on-campus thrifting experience.

Veronica Calle, Baruch junior and business communications major, said that Bearcat Thrift was her first exposure to involvement in Baruch. “I like it, I like that it was my first event. I would definitely show up to more,” Calle said while getting her henna done at the event.

Baruch is just the start for Bearcat Thrift. Phan and her team of student interns plan to take over the city with the marketplace and her developing app one step at a time.

Editor’s note: Science & Technology Editor Manish Kumar is the co-founder of Bearcat Thrift and had no part in the editorial process for this article.