Share this story.

What's In Store

New Bookstore Location Spurs Sales

By Jessica Allen (Class of 2003)

---

Click Photo to Enlarge Bookstore manager Anne Richards talks with Jessica Allen, the author of this article.

Click Photo to Enlarge The bookstore carries a wide variety of clothing items.

Click Photo to Enlarge More and more students are finding excuses to stop by the store between classes.

Click Photo to Enlarge Alumni will find plenty of logo gear on sale. Special discounts for "three-pointers" are offered the day after (or Monday after) men's basketball games.

Since its move to the third floor of the Learning Resources Center during the fall of 2001, the ORU Bookstore has experienced a significant increase in business among faculty, staff, and students.

"Sales are up, and so is traffic," said Anne Richards, the manager of the bookstore since June 2001. "[The move] hasn't really affected textbooks, but sales in the non-textbook areas have increased about 5 percent." Richards says this is substantial considering today's economy.

The new bookstore occupies a space that was once a student study area. It is currently located across from Java Stop and Smoothie Sensations, near the bottom of the library stairwell. Customers and bookstore employees agree that the new location is more convenient.

"It is so much better," said Priscilla Flagg, a senior from Memphis, Tenn. "Everything you need is right there. The Classroom Center used to be so out of the way."

According to Akisha Glasgow, a junior from Trinidad, the move has both pluses and minuses. "I go to it a lot more now than I used to," she said, "but I'm realizing more and more how much we need a nighttime study area."

The current arrangement is not permanent. Eventually the bookstore will move to the new Student Center, where it will expand to two floors. One floor will be devoted to textbooks, and the second to miscellaneous, non-textbook departments. "It will be comparable to what we had in the old building in terms of size," Richards explained.

That will give the bookstore a considerable amount of extra space compared to what it now enjoys; 3,500 square feet of storage and office space was lost in the move from the Classroom Center. Richards said the transition was labor-intensive, but she prefers being in the LRC. Now faculty and staff can also have easy access to the bookstore's services.

Since food and drink sales have increased the most dramatically, Richards is working to bring more convenience items to the store. She would also like the bookstore to include more value-priced school supplies, and a wider variety of clothing items--especially for women.

In terms of dollar sales, clothing has become the most lucrative (non-textbook) seller.

Although Richards believes that textbook sales will likely remain constant, she wishes that more students would take advantage of the bookstore's online service at efollett.com. The online service allows students to reserve new or used textbooks prior to registration. They can either pay for their books online, or when they come to pick them up.

Overall, Richards is very pleased with the bookstore's success. "Feedback from students has been positive," she said. "They don't want us to leave."