Defending Campus Stores

From time to time, someone on your campus may ask you, “Why does the school even have its own store anyway? Why can’t the institution just rely on other stores in the community to provide what students need?”

Campus stores have been getting those questions since the beginning. Back on July 11, 1960, two store managers went on the air to answer. Eleanor Alcala, Detroit Institute of Technology College Bookstore, and Harley Haskins, Wayne State University Bookstores in Detroit, were interviewed on Wayne State’s “Comment” radio program by John Cambus, a director of development for Detroit Tech.

They not only explained the rationale behind the existence of campus stores, the two went on to dispel some myths about store operations, discuss some of the unique challenges in collegiate retailing (such as dealing with administrators and faculty), describe how students view the store, and the difficulties of staying in the black. Some of their comments may sound familiar today while others show how stores in the ’60s faced different situations.

A transcript of the radio interview appeared in the Mid-Winter 1961 issue of The College Store Journal, along with an editorial note that more college store managers should try radio interviews to promote store.

July 11, 1960, transcript

Calling for COMMENT

Moderator Dr. John Cambus posed the question

Why Do Universities And Colleges Have Their Own Bookstores?

Providing the COMMENT

Panelists Miss Eleanor Alcala of the Detroit Institute of Technology College Bookstore and Harley Haskins of the Wayne State University Bookstores gave the answers.

Alcala: It seems to be a natural development, I think, from the demand and the supply of college textbooks for college courses.

Haskins: Added to that, the institutions wanted to insure themselves of an adequate supply of a low-profit textbook.

Cambus: With this then, ladies and gentlemen, the Detroit Institute of Technology, through the cooperation of Wayne State University Radio, welcomes you to another transcribed program which we call “Comment,” where we discuss the various aspects of the humanities, such as literature, visual arts, music and the like. Today … College Bookstores.

We do this by getting comments from our panel—Miss Eleanor Alcala, the manager of Detroit Institute of Technology Bookstore, and Mr. Harley Haskins, who manages Wayne State University Bookstores. I am Cambus, your moderator.

Eleanor, I think I will toss the ball right back to you and ask you to expand on your opening statement as to how this was a natural outgrowth.

Alcala: Yes, originally there were no College Bookstores. The professors required a textbook of their students so that they could do their lessons well. The publishers were too far away. The students certainly couldn’t buy books from the publisher, and so the professor would send in an order for his classes to the publisher and sell the books to his students. From this came the Bookroom. A room was set aside in the school where this transaction took place and, of course, as you needed more professional management, this became a business. And so today we have the professional College Bookstore.

Cambus: As a teacher, I can see some problems here … that the fellow was becoming more of a businessman or an intermediary between the book publisher and the class without having too much time for teaching.

Alcala: Yes, that is true. There is a lot of accounting involved in this … collecting money from the student, writing checks and making payments to the publisher. And this does take something away from the academic prestige of the professor, I think.

Cambus: Mr. Haskins, you mentioned the problem of profit. What about this in terms of college books?

Haskins: Well, the textbook is a very low-profit item and it requires a considerable number of other types of merchandise with a larger margin markup in order to operate the store. In the hands of the private merchants, at that time, they were more anxious to handle the more profitable items and in smaller quantities, the riskier textbooks.

Cambus: Now, I am not asking for a budget and balance sheet from each of you here, but are you both self-sustaining, self-supporting?

Alcala and Haskins: Yes, we are.

Cambus: Now, in terms of titles, for instance, how many would you have? Harley, offhand, with how many titles would you be involved?

Haskins: For the full semester, we will run 2,000 or better. In February, we will run around 1,675 on up.

Cambus: I think you mentioned to me, Eleanor, that ours is in the neighborhood of a couple hundred. Well, this means you are doing a tremendous amount of ordering here. How do you keep the numbers straight? Ever run out?

Haskins: Unfortunately, we do.

Alcala: This is the one problem that every College Bookstore in the country has.

Cambus: For your pet peeve, would you say this might be it?

Haskins: Yes, I would.

Cambus: … in terms of problems you run into with the faculty, for instance?

Haskins: Yes.

Cambus: So you really cut him right to the core because you weren’t thinking about him.

Haskins: We are running a retail business and you, as professor, know our campuses have been very fluid in the number of students the past fifteen years. This business is seasonal … the books are sold in the first three or four weeks of classes. Books are subject to being dropped by instructors, or there can be a change of edition. This means a loss. The book is not a stabilized item, nor is the student body stabilized. Here is a private merchant handling such an unspoilable item as sugar in a fixed neighborhood … and you can stop in his store and find he has run out of sugar.

Cambus: Then, what about this business of returning? You talk about losses … do the publishers have an arrangement to take back unused items?

Alcala: Yes, but these policies vary. Originally, I think the most common policy was about twenty percent per title, wasn’t it, Harley? Now the trend is one year. And this is through the efforts of the National Association of College Stores—we have a Relations With Publishers Committee which has convinced the publishers that they should give us more liberal policies. It is possible that you no longer need a book in the spring semester. Under the self-service setup, if you put that book on display, there might be someone who will come in to browse around and want that book.

Cambus: When you mention “one year,” this is opposed to thirty, sixty or ninety days return periods. And I think you were mentioning, Mr. Haskins, that is has changed from a per-title basis to a per-publisher basis.

Haskins: Per dollar volume, in the period for which that book was ordered.

Cambus: I see. I meant in terms of returns. There is no problem that the publisher will take all the titles back?

Haskins: No, sir, I am sorry, that is not so. In most cases you can have a larger return than your dollar volume, which happens even to the larger stores. With the accumulation of 2,000 titles across the board, it could happen.

Cambus: When it comes to trying to arrive at some number, you get an order from the dean or representative of the department, and he may or may not be aware of the problems you have. I think you were mentioning, Eleanor, that you have, first of all, the business of competition. The student will not buy all of his books from you … and the used books on the basis of the number of years this course has been taught. I don’t know what the ratio of this last one is, but there are some students who just don’t buy books for one reason or another—they double up or borrow from the library. What about this business of competition?

Alcala: Well, I think it is good because it stimulates the institutional manager to offer the best possible service.

Cambus: Well, you are almost on a nonprofit basis here. What else do you have to sell but service? I mean that in terms of the larger volume done with the little profit or no profit items. I think you mentioned that yours are service stores.

Alcala: Yes, definitely.

Haskins: In answer to that … I could be an instructor, but I’m a retailer at heart. That is why I am in my present business. I have the necessary college training for the other and, naturally, I am going to work for the greater dollar volume … and I am going to be very alert to any competition around me.

Cambus: Now, in terms of universities and colleges having Bookstores, I guess that here in the state of Michigan almost all of them own their stores or operate them. An exception would be the University of Michigan?

Haskins: There were two, Doctor, but one of them will open its store in September.

Cambus: Now, in terms of Wayne, here … you have Marwil, Cambridge and several other stores and, of course, we have the whole downtown section, such as Doubleday and Hudson’s, and the like. You are not overly concerned about this competition then?

Haskins: I’m not.

Alcala: No.

Cambus: Do you think this stimulates business, or does this put the prod onto you, as you were saying earlier, to do a better job?

Alcala: I’ll tell you that I think one of the hazards institutional managers fall under is that of becoming static.

Cambus: What do you mean … you have them there, they have to come to you?

Alcala: They have to come to you, so you don’t make the effort to have your store attractive, to perhaps put up promotions and such. It’s all this activity that stimulates the students to come to you and buy.

Cambus: One of the problems I know you have, that I hope you can overcome very shortly, is the business of space. And I understand that you are going to reorganize this thing into a self-service unit.

Alcala: Yes, I feel that nothing could be worse than what it is. Actually, figures are one and a half to two square feet per person enrolled. We have 3,000 students, 200 square feet, and as I’ve said, nothing could be worse. I am convinced of some improvement through self-service and that we should convert. I’m looking forward to it.

Cambus: Well, Harley, you have converted to self-service and have opened another store in the past couple years.

Haskins: Five years. I ran into self-service some time ago when it was first developed in Pasadena, and I spent a great deal of time studying it and worrying about the pilfering. It wasn’t until some six years ago that I convinced myself. We set up our branch store with self-service and used the old main store, which does the bulk of the business, as a control so that we could compare the two. After five years, I put the other one on self-service. Now we know by our dollar volume per day that we are dosing a day and a half of handling customers the first day we open. Let us use comparative figures. Our sales for the first day in the main store alone were some $29,000. Now, under self-service and with added cash register service, we are doing $42,000 … so we are doing about a day and a half of work on the first day of classes.

Alcala: Yes, it is true that under self-service, rather than your rush period extending into weeks, it usually is over by the first week … in smaller colleges maybe two or three days. So, the time factor is one thing.

Cambus: All the way along here you are looking for efficiency?

Haskins: We discover our shortages quicker, too.

Cambus: What about this business of pilfering? I’m sure you do not mean this when you say shortages. How do you control it?

Alcala: It really can’t be controlled unless perhaps you use mirrors.

Haskins: We use monitors moving in and out among the customers. We also have individuals spotted here and there where they can get a fairly decent view of the entire thing. The losses are not too great in the fall because they do not wear heavy clothing. It is in the wintertime, when heavy clothes are worn, that our losses are greater. … I will say also that those people who were picked up were not our students … they were outsiders.

Cambus: And then your small high-priced items are encased, aren’t they? They do have to be served?

Haskins: Yes.

Cambus: Well, let’s talk just a bit about some of the things you do to make a bit more profit, in terms of outlines, paperbacks, or supplies. I understand that you can even go into the business of selling jackets or sweatshirts. What about this?

Alcala: Let’s categorize this. First of all, textbooks are our main reason for existence. The greatest volume is in texts, there is no profit, although the publisher allows some discount.

Cambus: The students think you make a profit, don’t they?

Alcala: We’re robbers! Why I think the Bookstore manager is hated!

Haskins: However, the increase in textbooks—I’ve checked on this—is only approximately 25 per cent. And that is not as much as a package of cigarettes has gone up.

Alcala: Yes, I think it is too bad that prices are rising on textbooks, but then they are rising on everything else. So, we have textbooks—no profit. Secondly, supplies, and I suppose we could couple them with equipment, drafting and any kind required. The profit is a little higher and may be double that for textbooks. We do make a profit on supplies, and any profit shown on the balance sheets usually is from this source. The same amount of profit comes from jackets, sweatshirts and the like. These are things I think every College Bookstore should handle because the students may complain about the school but I rather doubt that he really would be ashamed of it.

Cambus: What do you mean “complain about the school”?

Alcala: Well, some students will say—“I’m going here because I have to”—or—“I really would rather be over there.” But there are students who like to wear lettered sportswear and the logical place to get it is the College Store.

Cambus: At some of the schools where I have been or with which I have been affiliated, there seems to be a split—the student union or center information desk handles these things and not the Bookstore. Now, Harley, what is your attitude about handling them? Should you handle these things?

Haskins: Definitely, Doctor. If we are to put these textbooks out—on which there is only a twenty per cent margin—it is costing us about ten cents per book to bring it in through freight or parcel post, without our clerk service, without our insurance and everything else connected with it … the fixed charges. This return item and the obsolescent loss are problems, for remember, it is costing us nine or ten cents to send that book back to the publisher.

Alcala: We already have paid freight to bring that book in, it hasn’t been used, and we’re paying freight to send that book back.

Haskins: We definitely have to have something else to carry us.

Alcala: One more point I think should be brought out … after the rush period is over there is nothing more but t plan for the next rush period. What is better than to bolster sales with these items between rush periods?

Haskins: That’s a good point. I wish I would have thought of it myself. That’s true, definitely true.

Alcala: Yes, it’s true. You want activity in the Bookstore all the time.

Cambus: Well then, if you have room, I dare say you would stock not only these items but also additional books instead of going to other Bookstores.

Haskins: Many institutions across the United States get this information from our National Association of College Stores, which is a trade organization representing now more than a thousand stores. It is claimed, as a matter of fact, that all stores doing $100,000 or more annually do belong to our Association. So we have a terrific cross-section. Many of the colleges and universities are recognizing their stores as real merchandising institutions—not just simply stockroom supply centers for textbooks. And we are finding sundry drugs being handled by the Bookstores along with cigarettes, candy and all other things. The students are making it their home.

Cambus: So if you are setting up supermarket self-service, you possibly get in supermarket items, too—in some instances.

Alcala: Yes, depending on the needs of the students.

Haskins: As a matter of fact, my business manager attended a meeting at the University of Pittsburgh and said you could even buy a car at the Bookstore there!

Cambus: This might be a touchy point here, but when I went to school under the G.I. Bill, the government permitted us to buy a healthy quantity of supplies. Was this a hey-day for Bookstores?

Alcala: Definitely, yes. I think so.

Haskins: It was for us in the beginning, but I became rather concerned about it. I began hearing rumors of what some of the other schools were doing, especially one of the state schools. They had a kick-back on fountain pens, or something of that nature. It was common knowledge—as a matter of fact, it was in the newspaper. There, training officers were limiting their people to fifty cents a credit hour, so my business manager and I drove over there and talked to their veterans’ representatives … and we came back and did the same thing. It cut our hey-day down. However, the veteran always got his books at a discount.

Cambus: I remember that even during the time I was there—I guess that cut was in effect—from one semester to the next there was a particular limit put on the terms of the items. What I was thinking of is that some Bookstores might have exercised their privilege a little too liberally here. For instance, engineering supplies could run into a nice amount of money. Or where you could buy a typewriter, if the professor requested that these things be typed and you didn’t have a typewriter, so what is the next item of supply—a typewriter?

Haskins: Well, I can speak here. At Wayne, our man in engineering, for instance, was very conscientious—so much so that I sometimes didn’t agree with him. But he simply stated that a drafting set had to be sold at a particular price and that was it. I knew that other stores could get the full list price for it.

Alcala: I’m not saying too much here for I was not a Bookstore manager at that time.

Cambus: What about the business of paperbacks? Is this helping you any? Or is this hurting you any? The reference is to paperback editions either as textbook items required by the professor, or additional items on which you might profit.

Alcala: Well first of all, one paperback is not going to replace one textbook. In my experience, I have found that it takes three or four titles in paperbacks to equal the contents of one textbook. For example—Introduction To Literature—you need a paperback on drama, poetry, essay and short story each. Paperbacks are wider margin items and could easily correlate with the courses good required outside reading which many professors hope their students will do.

Cambus: Well, you are not happier with this in terms of space … here you have a four to one ratio.

Alcala: It falls into the same category as the other pickup items that you could revert to between rush periods. I have put in a proposal for self-service mainly because I feel that after the rush period the space which has been occupied by textbooks is dead. I can’t use it until the next rush. I hope to put in paperbacks, upon the recommendations of the professors, and items that the students will want to buy.

Haskins: Those are paperbacks not required for courses, but I think the Doctor was referring to paperbacks in competition with the textbooks.

Alcala: Well, I pointed out that a good quality paperback sells for $1.50, $1.75, or $2 … so three or four paperbacks are going to equal the same amount as the textbook.

Haskins: We have the 50-cent and 35-cent paperbacks, too. One of my departments stopped using a certain textbook. Two lines of that text—that is, two rows of it—were using only certain required space on my shelves. When it was discontinued, eleven paperback titles were ordered to replace it.

Alcala: The 35-cent ones?

Haskins: The top one was $1.25. We also had 50-, 75-, and 35-cent ones. But I’m talking about space, too.

Cambus: I remember when I changed to one of the philosophy courses as I was finishing my work at Wayne. We went from one book to a string of eight or nine paperbacks that we had to end up buying.

Haskins: Frequently, it is rather amusing. One of our professors who had been on campus many years and was a very conscientious lady, said—“Now, isn’t this wonderful … I can have all this reading done at such a nominal cost.” She had been using a textbook and a reading book, and when you took the paperbacks she was requesting her students to buy and added the prices, they amounted to much more than the cost of the other two books.

Alcala: I was going to say that Bookstore managers are not totally mercenary. I think that most conscientious managers are aware that the important reason a student is in college is to obtain an education. And I think, aside from the space problem, the manager will go along and encourage the professors in connection with whatever is best for the students. We don’t think of ourselves in spite of the space problems, and I believe most Bookstore managers feel the same way. We are part of the educational institution … if it weren’t for the students we wouldn’t exist. I believe the only drawback is space, teamed with the fact that paperbacks are a little more perishable.

Cambus: Let’s talk about students here. What kind of person is he? Would he choose your Bookstore rather than go to the competitor first? Do you have any control over him in terms of this?

Alcala: I think most students feel a loyalty to the school and prefer to go to the College Bookstore.

Cambus: Does he trust you?

Haskins: He trusts us informationwise. It is not because he has gotten any raw deal from an outside merchant—I don’t want to put it that way. I can speak of a man at State who has carried a contract with his college for many years. Prior to him, another man could have bought the business. He has been established on the campus for all these years. Now, the college is going to open its own Bookstore. In speaking to this man, who I know very well and who is worrying about this, I simply said—“Well, now you’re been established.” And he said—“You know through your own experience that 85 per cent of those students, regardless of hardship or distance, will deal with the College Bookstore and not with me.

Alcala: Yes, I agree. The student is part of the educational institution. The Bookstore also is part of the educational institution and I do feel that there are some emotional ties there, although slight. The student wants to know it is his Bookstore. It is there for him, and the manager lets him know it’s for him.

Cambus: What about the student as a buyer? You were mentioning Hanley, before we went on the air, the attitude of the student in terms of being a purchaser.

Haskins: He is a very discerning buyer. He follows trends. He know what is advertised in Esquire and other magazines. We use an A-B-C-D method of pricing secondhand books. The “A” is supposed to be an indication of the best condition, and there is a range of probably from forty to fifty cents between the classes. However, we do not sort them on our shelves. It is rather amusing to see these young people take fifty government books and pile them up in their various price ranges, and then go through the lowest price range to pick out the best book.

Alcala: Yes, I think the student educates the manager. He wants good quality for as little as possible, and this teaches us to purchase likewise. At least I have found it that way in terms of manufacturers. You look for good quality because your students expect you to give them good quality at the lowest price.

Cambus: This is chosen for you, isn’t it? You don’t have any control over this—the professor requests it.

Haskins: We mean in supply terms.

Alcala: Supplies and equipment—textbooks are something else.

Haskins: As an institutional manager, that is my feeling. I know people who do in our business, but I’m sure you don’t, Eleanor, and I know I don’t. I have no room in my place for gadgets or traps which will take the student’s money because it looks good at the moment. This is an impulse item and later it ends up in the student’s dresser. We have no room for it, we do not buy it, we do not display it.

Cambus: You mentioned magazines earlier in terms of the student being aware of these. I have noticed that Bookstores, as a rule, do not sell magazines but do have cards by which they can avail themselves of the magazines at discount rates. Is this a problem of handling the magazine or what? Why don’t you have a rack for Esquire, Post, and the like?

Haskins: Eleanor sells subscriptions, I believe, but we don’t sell them because our ticket office does and uses the money to help buoy up their budget.

Cambus: I see, but you wouldn’t consider handling the magazines right on the shelf?

Alcala: Well, because of space problems, I wouldn’t. I think it also is because we—both Harley and I—are in the city, close to the downtown area where there are newsstands on almost every corner, and figure why bother. With the subscription cards, a student sends his card to us and we clear it for processing through the National Association of College Stores. There is no investment on our part. The publisher bills the student and he gets the magazine in his mail regularly. This is more convenient.

Haskins: And the student gets the student rate.

Cambus: I was thinking of professional journals and highly specialized magazines which are not readily available to the public. Now you can join the service organization, whether it is psychology, philosophy, or whatever it might be, to get this thing. Would it be profitable at all for the Bookstore to handle these?

Haskins: I have three different lists of those from various suppliers. They are in the center drawer of my desk and they’ve been there now for about seven months. I certainly would like to put them in, but I just can’t find the spot.

Alcala: Well, I wasn’t thinking in those terms. If there is a demand for something like this, the scholarly journals, I think that from the standpoint of service they should be made available. I think that most Bookstore managers would be happy to handle them for primarily we are providing a service to the student. I don’t think I would hesitate because I want to keep the professors happy. And I want to keep the students happy, too, for without them we wouldn’t exist. But we don’t have the demand for something like that.

Haskins: My university, as the Doctor knows, is going into a very rapid movement in all departments toward doctoral work. And there is where you would get those requests.

Alcala: You have a responsibility to the graduate student as well as the undergraduate.

Cambus: I noticed another thing that you have done recently, Harley, in terms of art reproductions. You’ve gone to putting in some of these inexpensive reproductions, haven’t you?

Haskins: Yes, we have. My supply buyer and my branch manager who has all the art material talked me into this idea. Art doesn’t mean a thing to me, as a matter of fact. I admired one print, couldn’t figure out what it was, and finally discovered it was a fried egg on a plate and had been mounted sideways.

Alcala: These prints are big things across the country on campuses. How are you doing with them, Harley?

Haskins: We do very well. I wouldn’t say that we set the world on fire, but it’s that offseason business which gives us the extra dollar.

Alcala: I imagine the campuses that have resident students would do an even bigger business. But I think it’s fine to be able to offer a student a good reprint.

Cambus: Yes, this is what I have noticed in several Bookstores across the country. They have gone into these. It is not a gadget item but sort of an esthetic item.

Haskins: We sell about 150 prints during the school year in the main store and probably about sixty down at the branch store.

Alcala: I think other colleges do better than that.

Cambus: Well, I think with this we had better bring this session of Comment to a close.