Airline High School Opens Student-Run Viking Exchange

The on-campus store gives students hands-on experience running a retail business, with Red River Credit Union backing its cashless payment system.

Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Secondary Education

Photograph of an empty school store counter with a contactless card terminal and folded maroon and white merchandise on shelves against a cinderblock wall. — Airline High School opened The Viking Exchange, a student-run on-campus store that uses a cashless payment system funded by Red River Credit Union. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Airline High School has opened The Viking Exchange, an on-campus store selling school gear, event tickets, and educational supplies that is operated entirely by students. The store uses a fully cashless point-of-sale system funded by Red River Credit Union.

Why it matters

The store functions as a working laboratory for the school's business curriculum, giving students practical experience in finance, inventory, and scheduling. Its transaction volume has significantly outperformed initial revenue projections.

The Viking Exchange averages more than 300 transactions per day through a fully cashless point-of-sale system. Specific revenue figures and the baseline projections used to judge its performance were not disclosed.

The players

Red River Credit Union

A Shreveport-area credit union that provided significant financial backing for the store's cashless point-of-sale system.

Airline High School

A public secondary school in Bossier City, Louisiana, where the student-run store is located.

The details

Teacher Scott Winstead conceptualized the project, and students handle day-to-day operations, including financial transactions, inventory, and scheduling. The store officially opened in early November 2026 and is scheduled to remain open for the rest of the school year.

Early November 2026: The Viking Exchange officially opens at Airline High School.
Remainder of the 2026-27 school year: The store remains open for students and faculty.

Roadmap

Student-run school stores have long been used to teach entrepreneurship, but adopting fully cashless payment systems brings them closer to the operations of commercial retail. The Viking Exchange follows this model by letting students practice modern payment handling instead of cash-based bookkeeping.

Bossier City families can see students gaining hands-on business experience through school-run retail. Parents and students interested in the program can check with Airline High School about how the store operates during the school year.

The takeaway

Programs that put students in charge of real transactions can build financial and operational skills that classroom instruction alone rarely provides. Schools considering similar projects can look to The Viking Exchange as a model of combining a business curriculum with practical retail work.