The Baker University bookstore will be under new management and a new company starting Feb. 24, budget director Darla Prather said.
Students, faculty and staff can expect to see a new selection of merchandise and a new design of the bookstore itself.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty smooth transition,” bookstore assistant Joyce Mitchell said.
The bookstore was at the end of its contract with one company and decided to switch to a new company called Follett.
“What we did was put together a proposal,” Prather said. “One of the things we put in there was that we would expect to have specific operating hours and that the bookstore would be open for special weekend events and a full host of services that the bookstore has provided. We wanted to make sure we were continuing with that kind of stuff.”
The new bookstore change will bring a new mix of clothes and other merchandise.
“You would probably have seen that anyway with a new vendor,” Prather said. “We’re hoping (Follett) will be very student-oriented and faculty-oriented in serving the needs of our community.”
Prather said while students on campus won’t see any huge changes in the way the bookstore operates, students who live off campus and buy books online will see some changes.
“I think students off campus are probably going to see bigger changes in services than those that are on campus,” she said.
The bookstore will be closed for a final inventory and changeover Feb. 24.
"There will be some new fixtures and new merchandise," Prather said. <br/>Mitchell said the process of switching over to Follett has been fairly easy.Mitchell said the process of switching over to Follett has been fairly easy.
Mitchell said the process of switching over to Follett has been fairly easy.
“They are already starting to ship us stuff,” Mitchell said. “We’ll have all new merchandise, basically. It will be a little bit limited this spring just because we’re going into the slow summer months, but then we’ll get a bunch of new stuff in for fall.”
Mitchell and bookstore assistant Shirley Rochester will remain on staff, but they are still in the process of hiring a new bookstore manager as well as a textbook manager.
“They asked me (to be the textbook manager), but I didn’t want that” Mitchell said. “I think they are still interviewing for it. They are kind of cutting it down to the wire.”
The bookstore has merchandise on sale from 50-75 percent since winter break in order to prepare for the new merchandise that is arriving.
“There should be lots of orange around campus now,” Mitchell said.
