Sad news from San Francisco State University: the University Corporation Board has voted 7-1 to negotiate with Follett Higher Education Group to manage the SFSU Bookstore, which has been a well-run independent, nonprofit store and featured one of the country's largest general books departments at a college store.
General manager and CEO Rob Strong said that he expected a transition to take place this summer, as early as July, and that although the store "competed vigorously and honorably" to win the contract, he and the staff will work hard for a smooth transition. It's expected that staff members will be able to continue to work for Follett for at least a minimum period of time.
Part of the California State University system, which has been squeezed by the state budget crisis, SFSU decided four months ago to put up the bookstore for management bid. (A majority of the CSU system bookstores are leased.) The store received broad support from students and faculty as well as publishers and the independent bookstore community.
Incorporated in 1954, the SFSU Bookstore has been a leader in meeting the challenges of contemporary college stores. It has textbook rentals and has tested different supply chain models. It has a generous customer reward program. It was one of the first schools in California to create an iPhone app for buyback so that students could see live information on the value of the books they wanted to sell back. The store also allows for price comparisons of texts on its website with a variety of options for obtaining a text. It is the largest employer of students on the SFSU campus and one of the top five donors to the university.
The SFSU Bookstore's general books department has some 25,000 titles, with a "fiction wall," and is as large and well-stocked as many independent bookstores.
General books manager and buyer Ken White noted that his "first day on the job for the SFSU Bookstore was June 1, 2001, when I boarded a flight to Chicago for BEA. I hadn't even seen my desk yet! I've loved this job, it's wonderful to work with the students in an environment of higher learning. There's been a lot of professional growth for me as well, starting with joining the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association board of directors, and now serving as a board director of the American Booksellers Association. There have been monumental changes in our industry, as the old business models come under stress and new ones are tried out.
"Now it's come full circle: it was at BEA 2012 that I learned of the university's decision to lease our store to Follett. I'm sorry not to have been with my store colleagues on that day, yet profoundly grateful to be surrounded by my fellow booksellers, my friends at the ABA and our publishing colleagues."
