The recession, e-textbooks, online competition, pressures on budgets, changing student demographics and expectations, and stagnant or declining textbook sales were among major topics last week at the National Association of College Stores conference and CAMEX trade show in Orlando, Fla.
Speaking at the association's annual business meeting, outgoing NACS president Vicki Morris Benion, director of the Bucknell University Bookstore, Lewisburg, Pa., summed it up this way: "We are an industry in transition. Our traditional source of revenue is being challenged in how it's priced, sold and consumed. It is imperative that we become savvier retailers. NACS is here to help."
For his part, NACS CEO Brian Cartier said, "What we see out there today is like the perfect storm and not a pretty picture." He called on college retailers "to think differently" and focus "not on what we see but what we see is possible.
"For so many years, we've supported learning environments on campus, but now we need also to support the living environment," Cartier continued. "Students go to college to learn but, increasingly, the living environment is important."
Much of what is possible, he said, is outlined in a $300,000 study funded by NACS and the NACS Foundation and conducted by Retail Forward to research, define and "promulgate" the college store of 2015. Lois Huff, senior v-p of Kantar Retail, parent company of Retail Forward, presented the study at the show. (More on the College Store of 2015 tomorrow.)
Cartier called this "not a minor report," but "a set of ideas, a set of recommendations, for helping to guide us as an association. It looks at the state of NACS and looks at the future."
Findings from the study and its recommendations are being made part of NACS's strategic plan, which will be updated at the board meeting in June. "This is a beginning," Cartier continued. "We will be looking at helping you in terms of living and learning environments, tools, training, education and business models aimed at helping you be successful in the new environment. Many of you are already there. If one can do it, you all can do it."
He stressed that members "need to be nimble because the world is changing very, very quickly. If we focus on what we see today, the picture is pretty dire. If we focus on what's possible, the picture is very bright and exciting."
Rental Textbook Task Force
In other news, earlier this year NACS set up a task force on rental textbooks that is headed by Carol Miller, director of the NDSU Bookstore, Fargo, N.Dak. The group has begun surveying stores and reviewing the many federal and state rental textbook initiatives. So far, she said, it's apparent that "stores are doing rental programs in many different ways. No one size fits all."
Stores without rental programs are hesitant because of the upfront inventory cost and questions about the life cycle of the titles. Faculty need to use the books for a certain length of time. Also, store accounting and systems have to be adapted for rental programs.
The task force has begun discussions with publishers and wholesalers on business models that would address stores' concerns. Other areas that the task force is focusing on are devising a financial model, helping stores present rental programs to faculty and administrations and how to share all this information with NACS members.
NACS Media Solutions 
Founded in 2008, NACS Media Solutions "exists so we can bring together technological and content partners," said Ed Schlichenmayer, deputy CEO of NACS and president and COO of the NACS subsidiary. "We're not building the silver bullet. Instead, we're reaching out, identifying, filtering, researching and finding the right partners and investing in the right business models that make sense to you." The unit is looking at digital content platforms, POD, e-reader support, expanded e-business capabilities and more. "We want to allow you to offer digital solutions to our customers."
NMS also acts as a consultant to companies outside the industry, many of which want to get into "the coveted space" of the campus store. Schlichenmayer said that "if they are willing to accommodate stores and have an appropriate business model for stores, we talk with them."
Among its efforts, last fall NMS entered a partnership with Canadian Campus Retail Associates to create a digital content platform for e-books and POD that will be integrated with other systems and owned by the store. NMS is coordinating a U.S. pilot program at more than 60 stores this spring.
NMS has also partnered with On Demand, the maker of the Espresso Book Machine, and Verba Software.
(In a related partnership, NACSCORP is working with Baker & Taylor's Majors Education Solutions to offer co-branded e-commerce and marketing solutions to college retailers. Majors is a longtime distributor of media and health science textbooks.)
NMS is also exploring other technological services stores might offer, including digital review copies, price-comparison tools for students and faculty, and marketing support services.
In addition, NMS has begun an e-newsletter, InCITE; set up a new website, nacsmediasolutions.com; and has a blog, all intended to help NACS members "stay current," Schlichenmayer said. "We're challenging you to expand your knowledge of e-readers" and "build campus partnerships internally," with faculty, the library, IT departments and other entities, so that stores can become "the leader of all things digital."
NACS Finances
The past two full fiscal years, ending at the end of March 2008 and 2009, were "extremely strong" for NACS financially, and the current year, ending March 31, has been "a bit of challenge," Cartier said, but the association "will exceed budget."
NACS Partnership and NACSCORP both had "solid years financially," according to Robert Ritenbaugh, assistant v-p for auxiliary services at Auburn University and chair of NACS's finance and budget committee. During the current fiscal year, NACS was able to make sizable investments, including more than $1 million for NACS Media Solutions and $400,000 for the NACS Foundation, while membership dues have held steady. Ritenbaugh said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1.
Other News
NACS and ABA have begun a program allowing NACS members to receive the benefits of full ABA members for $100.
Debbie Harvie, past NACS president, president of the NACS Foundation and director of the UBC Bookstore in Vancouver, B.C., was presented with the 2010 Aspen Award, recognizing a college retailer who has made "consistent contributions to the professional development of others."
Jim Haemker, director of bookshop and Union services at Luther Book Shop in Decorah, Iowa, received the NACS Foundation Distinguished Service Award.
Red Deer College Bookstore of Red Deer, Alberta, won the NACS Foundation 2010 Innovation Achievement Award for replacing traditional plastic bags with reusable bags and using the proceeds to begin a scholarship fund, to which the store is donating its $5,000 prize.--John Mutter