Store Plans Dorm Delivery to Curtail Crowding

In an effort to reduce the throng of shoppers and avoid the risk of the coronavirus, the bookstore is taking a different approach.

“We’re coordinating delivery to students’ dorm rooms, so less contact,” explained Deanna Casterton, store director.

If students go online to order their textbooks—and anything else they want from the Campus Shop—by Aug. 25, their order will be delivered directly to their dorm room, probably before they even move in.

The store is getting some help from a couple of other campus departments for this new endeavor.

“Naturally we had to speak with Residence Life to get the logistics, who’s on campus when,” Casterton said. “They’re helping us work around dorm assignments.”

Student athletes come in early. First-year students move in the last weekend in August, with returning students arriving immediately after that. Residence Life agreed to provide all room assignments and the scheduled arrival time for each occupant.

“In a normal case, they’d probably say no to us to protect students’ privacy,” Casterton acknowledged. “But in this case, they were absolutely willing to help us.”

Casterton said the store plans to organize deliveries by residence hall, checking not only when each customer is due to arrive but also their roommate. The idea is to drop off the order when no one’s there to minimize contact.

“We’ll still knock and announce ourselves,” she said. “We won’t put a foot in the room, just open the door, put the bag of books on the floor, and then lock it up.”

As an added precaution, a photo will be taken of each labeled delivery bag next to the number on the dorm door.

The store is working with the Facilities office to get a master key to open the dorm rooms. While student employees will be assisting with deliveries, only a regular full-time staffer will have a master key and will be responsible for actually placing the bag in the room.

Casterton also asked Facilities for their recommendations on how to transport the bags. They suggested a rolling laundry cart. “I said, ‘You mean the kind you hide people in during escapes?’” she laughed. Nonetheless, she’s doing a dry run this week to test it out before the actual delivery.

Since this is the first time for the delivery service, she has no idea how long it will take. Usually the Luther College Book Shop gets some 1,300 orders (from an enrollment of 1,600), but there’s no way to predict how many orders might come in this year. Although the store is still renting textbooks, not as many titles are offered. There are also fewer student workers to help with rush this year.

The plan is to get all orders delivered before the customer moves in. If that doesn’t happen, or if students order after the cutoff date, then they can pick up their purchase at the store. In the email sent to students with their scheduled one-hour move-in time, Residence Life also let them know they had one hour after that to collect their orders from the Campus Shop. That will also help to spread out traffic at the store.

For students who will be doing remote instruction, orders will be shipped free to their home.

“I’m so thankful I have campus colleagues to work with us. There are times when people really shine. Who’s helping the students? Everything we do is for the students,” Casterton said. “This is a perfect example.”