Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

It’s pretty clear: love is definitely in the air at college stores all over the country. With less than a week to go before Valentine’s Day, suggestions for romantic gifts, requests for “meet cute” anecdotes and holiday sales are filling up our newsfeed on a regular basis. This year it seems like more stores than ever are actively using Facebook to promote their efforts — like the WSU Bookstore, with their “14 Days of Valentines Giveaway.”

The stereotype is everywhere: you can always find cheaper books than at your campus bookstore. Stores that have in-town competition especially know this one, as many brick-and-mortar college town competitors claim to out-buy and undersell the bookstore every term.

With their men’s basketball team going through perhaps the greatest era in school history, excitement on the Iowa State campus is at an all-time high. Capitalizing on that hype is the Iowa State Bookstore, who first launched a promotion called “Magic Monday” (a reference to ISU’s Hilton Magic) at the mid-way through the 2013-14 season.

Long lines. Frantic Students. Rush can be a hectic time for everyone, on both sides of the bookstore counter. For many students, the combination of a new semester beginning, finding all of the right books and then having to buy them makes it an especially stressful time. This year, the staff at the UVU Bookstore found a clever way to allay some of that stress for their customers, and gave one lucky student a big surprise.

The stereotypical student might be out for every penny they can get during buyback. Lincoln Land Community College is not full of stereotypical students.

With the holidays right around the corner, Riverland Community College is getting its customers in the spirit with 12 Days of Holiday Deals. The holiday campaign began on December 4th, and will run through the final day of class on the 19th, offering customers a new deal each weekday.

It’s a tradition that goes back nearly two decades: every year, the bookstore staff of Memorial University at Newfoundland work together to raise money for their community. Initially, the donation resulted from the sale of their handmade crafts, with the recipients being a single-parent family in need.

As part of a university-wide goal to make the campus a little greener, the University of Minnesota Duluth bookstore went bag free between November 3rd and 7th. Ann Pellant, the Buyer Supervisor at the bookstore, says that they are planning to make this a biannual event from now on, after only doing it in April for the past six years.

Halloween is serious business at both locations of the University of Alaska-Anchorage Bookstore! Not only is it the staff’s favorite time of year, it’s also an excellent excuse to plan fun events, play dress up and get rid of some “dead” merchandise. While many of us only get one day for a treat-eating, costume-wearing celebration of the spookiest holiday of the year, at these stores, Halloween is a week-long event that includes pumpkin carving, giveaways, a special sale and pint-sized trick-or-treating.

Faculty adoptions can be a historic pain point for college bookstore operators. Whether courses and instructors aren’t finalized in time for the bookstore's deadline or they’re just plain busy, faculty seem to wait until or after the last minute — or later — to turn in their adoption lists for the upcoming term.