Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

College stores work hard to offer the best service to students and the campus community, especially the campus store at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC). Wanting to ensure students get the best prices on textbooks, the store has worked to continuously evolve with changing industry demands. We recently spoke with Rita Smith, Campus Store Manager/Food Services, Anoka-Ramsey Community College to learn the steps her store has taken to ensure students save money and how the MBS system has helped streamline vital store processes to make it possible.

A student goes online to check her schedule for the upcoming term. She clicks on the registrar’s link which takes her directly to the college store site and prepopulates the online shopping cart with her required course materials. After reviewing the contents of the shopping cart, she selects in-store pickup to avoid shipping costs and checks out. The whole experience was easy, and she never once had to wait in line. She arrives in the bookstore on the designated date and time to pick up her order — ready to start a new term. This is a reality more and more students are experiencing. However, what goes on behind the scenes at the college store to make this possible?

As John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Just like we are all connected, the college store is part of the greater campus community. Strong campus relationships can help stores in a variety of ways, such as bringing new store opportunities, improving student communication or ensuring on-time faculty adoptions.

SimpleSource is one of the industry’s best ordering tools. It is easy to use, saves stores time and lowers costs. Nationwide, stores are benefiting from the streamlined service this tool provides

Many college stores are in the process of reviewing their return policies for the fall term. Unprecedented conditions mean college stores have a lot of new considerations. We recently asked several college stores if they had updated their return policy and what their policy will be for fall.