Even though it doesn't seem like it right now, Elon Univerisity Barnes & Noble manager Carly Mayer says there is a method to the ongoing changes of ordering books.
In years past, students were able to walk in and order books in person. But starting this year, textbook orders can only be processed online. Mayer said that while this may seem hectic at first, the overall goal is to create more efficiency.
“I think any time you change a process, people have their grumblings, and that’s understandable,” Mayer said. “In the past people have been able to just walk in, and I understand now they have to wait a little bit, but we’re hoping that this makes the overall process a little less stressful.”
Once students order their books, the store will bring them in from an off-site warehouse and email students when their books arrive, Mayer said. Orders placed in the morning will be ready in-store by 3 p.m. the same day, Mayer said. During peak times, such as the start of semesters, books will be ready by the next business day at the latest.
A warehouse at an undisclosed location holds all of Elon's Barnes & Noble's ordered books. Photo courtesy of Carly Mayer.
A need for space and efficiency prompted the staff to decide to move textbooks to an off-site warehouse. According to Mayer, the store doesn’t want to reveal the location of the warehouse because they don’t want students traveling there.
“ [The warehouse] is more spread out so we can have more people working to process books at any given time,” Mayer said. “Students who are pulling online orders don’t have to stop to help customers. We kind of have two forces. We have the customer-facing team here and then we have the pulling and processing team [at the warehouse], so ideally, there’s less wait time in the end.”.
The extra space allows for what Mayer called “flex space” to host events in the store such as readings and de-stress events. It has also added room for two fitting rooms.
This “flex space” and the new textbook ordering protocol weren’t the only changes the bookstore underwent this summer. Staff launched a price match system for textbooks as well.
According to Mayer, the bookstore thought the price match system “was an opportunity to bring back some folks to the store,” but there are stipulations to the system. The bookstore price matches with Barnes & Noble headquarters and Amazon as long as the book is sold directly by Amazon and not individual sellers. They do not price match with peer-to-peer sites like Chegg.
In addition, the price match textbook has to be in the same condition as the textbook at the bookstore. According to Mayer, the exchange has to be an “even trade-off.”
Despite the price match’s conditions, Mayer said several students have already come in and received refunds for textbooks. While senior Mark Schenk hasn’t personally used price match yet, he thinks the system is a good idea.
“It is a relevant and interesting approach to buying textbooks for today’s college students,” Schenk said.
With the changes, Mayer said she wants to remind students that the bookstore wants to be involved as an integral place in their college experiences.
“We want to be a fun place beyond just coming to get your textbooks. We want people to view us as a social hub on campus,” Mayer said.