Keep Your Eyes on the Future

Many campus stores and their institutions were gob smacked when the COVID pandemic hit in early spring 2020. Schools closed abruptly, some in the middle of spring break while students were away.

Problems immediately arose. What about returns of rental books? How would stores supply students with materials for the rest of the academic year? Graduation? Spring sports? Fall rush?

Imagine if your store had already pondered the possibility of an event like the pandemic shutting down the campus, forcing a move to online education and commerce. Your store might have been able to consider plans of action and put resources in place in advance, just in case.

There are plenty of events and situations in the future that could affect your store and institution, both positively and negatively. “It’s fun to think about the future of higher education,” noted CAMEX23 presenter Jennifer Sader in the session, Look into Your Crystal Ball: What Will the Future Hold?

More than fun, though, Sader said looking ahead can help prepare your store and employees to better manage disasters and downtrends and to make the most of opportunities. Future planning can be easily incorporated into regular staff meetings and strategic planning. Start by monitoring for signs of trends and thinking about what might happen.

Sader suggested three ways to go about this:

Look at imaginative resources. Creative arts, pop culture, science fiction, film and TV, videos, and other media often depict life in the future or possible situations—and sometimes real life follows the imaginary.

Identify and track trends. Keep an eye on news and developments in areas that could most impact the store; Sader recommended higher education, technology, retailing, and society in general.

Discuss what-if scenarios. Think of all sorts of situations in the short and long run, and how your store could prepare for them.

As an exercise, the session’s audience members were asked to come up with future trends that could have a big impact on college stores. Here are their answers:

In 10 years, store industry professionals greatly reduced due to automation.

Creative use of remote education.

Service (small stores), mostly not course materials (digital and merchandise).

Subscriptions.

Digital will continue to dominate, technology purchase—bigger, phones everyone.

Moving merchandise to events, one to three years. If no online presence, it’s an immediate need.

Cashless options in store. Less traffic in store. More online sales, websites more important than ever. More programs like drop-ship with less and less inventory in the brick-and-mortar stores. Just like we see in medicine now, higher ed more tailored to what students want. More hybrid education. Want things like what they want their way, I think the future will be more this way.

No more cashiers, all self-checkout. College/university shrink due to enrollment cliff. State systems of higher ed continue to move to shared services.

Higher ed: More individual ed. Minimal items in store or on campus.

All online retail.

Society: Minority population grows to majority.

New tech will help more disabled people to attend college or work.

Supporting students more.

Higher ed obsolete. All classes online 24/7. Virtual reality dressing rooms and shopping.

Higher ed less enrollment, more diversity in nontraditional course offerings, more virtual offerings. Tech: More artificial intelligence tech used instead of people due to population decline.

Less time in school, accelerated degree, shorter to bachelor’s. More hy-flex, shorter time on campus.

Metaverse immersion by the basement people.

Smaller stores/schools will start to be very different from big schools.

Tech crash, people having to learn basic skills to grow food, travel, and communicate.

Mass exodus of faculty.

In five years, mass retirements and movement by faculty away from higher ed.

Implant book info into brains.

Ability to sustain increased costs.

Technology too costly for most.

Higher costs. End of liberal arts and humanities.

Higher ed covered by states at no cost to student. Businesses also contribute. Different majors: trades, technology.

Employees that can build things and manual labor are paid well.

USA will streamline college tuition for state schools for increased inclusion in each state.

More diversity in student body.

Technology: More hotspots everywhere.

Accelerated eight-week classes. Students complete degree faster.

10 major schools teach online (dominate market).

Consolidation of large schools. Value of degree. Free college.

Specialty school (one vet school per region).

All mobile devices vs. computers, laptops.

MBAs matter less due to everyone doing one.

Fewer white-collar jobs require degrees.

Customized degrees and highly unique/varied course materials.

Less higher ed attendance, more trade schools for craftmanship skills.

Online learning.

Majority of classes online.

Artificial intelligence.

A.I. instructors.

All classes online/hybrid.

More online college courses/master’s, etc. Different majors. Less in-person college, more distant learning. Exclusive online-based learning. Society: Less human (in-person) interaction.

We become less focused on academic results—trophy for everyone.

Media embedded in glasses or contacts, eliminates need for computer/phone.

Higher ed: Lower education standards to fill seats.

Kids that were used to not having to relate now afraid to relate in person.

Society so dependent on technology, not able to solve problems on own, no free thinking.

Inability to think critically/solve problems.

Failure to trust education.

Declining enrollment.

Less enrollment unless more fast career.

Education goes VR.

Will my college close?

Middle-sized schools disappear.

Virtual reality is accessible to everyone.

All online students.

No face-to-face class.

I will not speak to group: the new norm.

Legislation disrupter.

Lockers for all quick orders and ease of pickup—food and goods.

Retail environment switches to all kiosks, self-serve, automated.

Shared jobs (20 hours each).

Less people on campus.

Digital content, inclusive.

Equitable access becomes a standard in the industry.

Equitable access widespread usage ASAP.

More all-inclusive equitable access.

Less course materials per course. All higher ed schools move to equitable access.

What’s next for inclusive access/equitable access?

Continue to move toward cashless transactions.

Subscription-based course material buying.

Return of the video store.

Shift to custom—less trends in fashion.

Cashless, crypto transactions.

No employees.

AI takes over the world.

All digital material.

No more texts in stores.

Changing product mix without course materials.

No course materials.

Digital only for books.

No print textbooks, all digital.

In 10 years: “Textbooks” no longer exist in tradition form. Content is provided a la carte and delivered digitally. Print is almost complete gone.

Fewer brick-and-mortar stores.

Expectations for online shopping/pickup/delivery.

Retail: More online spaces.

I won’t be here in five years.

Communicator embedded in body.

Technology: Order items online and some type of system transported immediately.

Less human interaction in retail.

Cars driving by self.

Retail: All kiosks, cashless, smaller footprints.

Retail: Small boutique. Big box automated.

No textbooks.

Book is dead. More/complete digital course materials.

Print books obsolete in 10 years or less.

Virtual storefront.

Virtual try-on for at-home shopping.

Pay like an Amazon store.

Cashless operation. Cashier-free operations.

Print book is dead.

Self-checkout.

Cashless campus. Mobile credentialing.

Audio courses. Self-checkout. No-contact checkout. Food service and retail mixing. Grub and Co.

Cashless society.

More contactless payments.

Self-checkouts in all stores. Pay by phone scan as put in cart.

Touchless transactions, ex. RFID.

Embedded ID chips? Payment, marketing.

Bookstore engages in education: interns, courses.

Society wants to pare down its “stuff” (buy fewer things) and spend more on experiences (or take a more fun job that pays less).

Daylight Savings year-round.

Vending machines for everything.

No brick-and-mortar stores.

Bookstores—college—no longer needed. Retail is all online.

No employees. Retail more widespread.

All robotics employees.

Hologram salespeople.

Less foot traffic.

Amazon dominates.

Less people on campus. Paperless studies. Amazon bookstore (total dominates).

Removal of physical stores.

Smaller store.

Airdrop textbooks. Less text waste. Less plastic. Semester away.

Vending machines for retail.

More service. Belonging/inclusive attracts students.

Nonprofit, campus operated stores.

Inflation trend continues. Higher prices. Wages have less impact.

Four-day work week.

Kinder society.

No Social Security for my generation.

Shift away from “mass” consumerism.

Society: More science on healthy eating.

Mental health stress.

People work from home and more family groups stay together providing support to all generations and society.

Less tech, more substance = mental health.

Robots doing work.

Naps at work/napping stations, boost brain function.

People living to 110 years plus, retirement age up.

More purpose in life.

And of course, a few participants had some pretty wild ideas about the future:

We have humans on Mars.

Flying cars the norm.

Zombie apocalypse.

Jesus comes back.

Space college.

Ghostbusters college.

Yellowstone (TV show) is cancelled. People leave Montana. Llamas become service animals.