Bookstore partnership comes with benefits

When students head to the bookstore this fall, they’ll notice a lot of changes. But they won’t have as much time to check the place out as they may have in the past.

A partnership agreement reached over the summer between University Enterprises and Follett Higher Education Group for Follett to run the bookstore has added new merchandise, a new look and what should be a substantial reduction in wait time for those purchasing books.

During the book-buying rush at the start of the semester, 30 cash registers will be humming—double the number in previous years. The increased staffing, as well as faster data lines for credit card purchases, is expected to shrink a student’s potential wait time from as much as two hours to 15 minutes, says Lisa Hall, director of project/resource development for University Enterprises.

Mary Perry, director of visual merchandizing for Follett, adds that the lines will move even quicker now that newly installed T-1 lines for the credit card machines have replaced analog lines, cutting the wait to process a card from 30 seconds to three or four seconds. The changes are part of more than $1 million Follett has committed for capital improvements. The company will also provide $10,000 in annual textbook scholarships, in addition to faculty and staff discounts and alumni special promotions.

“The goal is to help customers quickly the first time so they’ll come back,” Perry says. “If they are valued, they won’t shop elsewhere. We want going to the bookstore to be a ‘want to’ experience rather than a ‘have to.’”

“When students walk into our bookstore, they’re going to be impressed,” said Executive Director of University Enterprises Matthew Altier when the partnership was announced in June. “And it will be great to have Follett help us as we design and build a new bookstore. Their experience and expertise will help make it a great facility.”

Other immediate changes are designed to get students more familiar with the Bookstore’s selection of logo merchandise, sure to be hot items when the University unveils its new logo on Sept. 1. Logowear t-shirts, hats, shorts and more are front and center in the store these days and book sale lines will be set up to queue through the store, giving students a chance to look over and purchase gear.

Follett opens a store every 12 days, so it means something when Perry says she has been really impressed with Sacramento State. “I’ve never met a group more focused on students than the Sac State team. From the get-go it’s been such a great partnership. Everyone asks, ‘How can we get that done for fall?’” Perry says.

She adds that it’s been particularly helpful to work with an experienced management team in bookstore director Julia Milardovich and assistant manager and book department manager Doris Gorin. Perry says that it’s not that the Bookstore hasn’t put students first in the past, there simply weren’t enough resources to implement large-scale change. ”It’s hard to do both textbook management and merchandizing,” she says.

Besides visibility in store, the Bookstore is strengthening its presence elsewhere. This semester, the Bookstore’s “Got Books?” campaign has been expanded so when students register through
CasperWeb, the books for their classes automatically are put in an online shopping cart. At the end of the registration process they get a “Buy books now?” prompt. They can then pay by credit card and have the books shipped to their home or pick them up in special area of the bookstore. Several hundred students have already used the service.

The decision to partner with Follett followed extensive research and visits to similarly sized campus bookstores. A number of factors contributed to Follett being selected. Among them: The company serves more campus bookstores than any other company; it pledged to offer positions to every Hornet Bookstore employee at their current salary and comparable benefits; and it agreed to fund extensive capital improvements.

Over the summer Follett staffers have been meeting with bookstore employees. In addition to enhancing the bookstore for the short-term, the company will help design the new bookstore near the University Union. Follett is funding portions of both efforts. As part of its agreement, Follett will also hold special events such as author signings, sell books and merchandise at campus events, and possibly develop small retail sites on campus.

Follett Higher Education Group, founded in 1873, is a family-owned bookstore operator managing more than 700 campus bookstores nationwide. Among more than 50 California campuses with Follett-run bookstores are UC Berkeley, Stanford and four CSU campuses—Channel Islands, Dominguez Hills, Maritime and Northridge.

More: www.sacstate.bkstr.com