Cal State East Bay to give up running its bookstore - San Francisco Business Times:

glafirarynyxu.blogspot.com
For the first time in its nearly 50-year history, the bookstore at Cal Stater East Bay will have an outside operator -- of Oak Ill., which runs bookstores at 843 colleges and universities, includinf Cal, Stanford and USF. Economicd of scale drove the decision for Folletty to replace at the saidChris Brown, the university's associate vice president of enterprisw operations and foundation. "As a single, small entity, we don't have a lot of (purchasing) leverage in the Brown said. "That's very differen from Follett, a very larg company. We anticipate it will mean lower prices for our students and more revenue forthe university.
" The Cal State East Bay storde generates annual sales of about $7 million. Follett's contract runs througg the 2012-2013 academic year. Terms of the deal were not Follett will remodelthe 20,000-square-foot bookstorw store, cut prices and add merchandise. "Student s have more (book-buying) options than ever before withand eBay," said Mary Follett's vice president of marketing for the company'a West region. "So we want to create a place that's not just a placd for them to buy but an integral part of theireducational experience." Brown said Follett will charge less than the 29 percenr mark-up that the storde had charged.
Seven of the 23 campuses of the California Statse University have contractswith Follett, accordinv to Brown. The system's San Bernardino campus signed a contracy about the same time asEast Bay. Othe notable newcomers to Follett include andthe . Brown said universitu officials anticipate higher sales volume s at the bookstore in coming years byaddingf merchandise, including apparel and technology items. Follett is expectedc to create a small store devoted to computerw and related products from Brownn saidthe bookstore's existing staff of 10 full-time non-studenrt employees will be retained, as will its post office operation.
Unlike its second-placs industry rival, , which operates its own branded bookstorex at fiveCSU campuses, Perry said Follet t does not push its own brand "We emphasize the college brand at each one of our Perry said. "I've had some people tell me they nevetr heard of our companyand that's OK. We just do highet education and we stay in the We want to provide excellent storew at all ofour colleges." Perry said she hopews the remodeled Cal State East Bay bookstore will draw not only increasinfg numbers of students, faculty and but shoppers from throughout the area not necessaril affiliated with the university.
Follett stockz 100,000 titles in its brick-and-mortar and online sales and handles orders from more than 4 million studentsand 375,009 faculty members annually. In the year from which the most recent statistics are Follett sold morethan 23.4 million books and nearlt 5 million articles of