The University Store is transitioning to a Barnes & Noble on both the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses next month. 

We spoke with Georgia Southern’s VP of Business and Finance Ron Stalnaker and CFO Justin Janney, along with Barnes & Noble representative Michelle Grecharter to understand the reasoning behind this partnership and the changes it will bring to the campus bookstore. 

Decision to Lease with Barnes & Noble 

Stalnaker and Janney explained that the financial performance of the current University Store is what led to the leasing decision. 

Upon Georgia Southern’s selection process, RFP (request for proposal), six to seven companies submitted and presented. This required process led to Georgia Southern picking Barnes & Noble out of the competitors. 

“They just offered a better service for our faculty, staff, students and fans,” Stalnaker said. He explained that Barnes & Noble’s services will offer students more brands and customization options. 

“For us to be able to take it to the next level, what Barnes does, I don’t think we could have done that. So really, just looking at trying to make a better performance and a better product for students.” 

Textbook Changes 

Along with the traditional textbook model, students looking for affordable options will be able to rent textbooks from Barnes & Noble. Digital textbooks will be available with the day-one access program and will be accessible directly on Folio. 

 “It’s not just the affordability, but for students, convenience is a big part of affordability, as opposed to having to go to different publishers and different places, if you know that you’re going to get your best pricing from the store, being able to go there and save time,” Grecharter said. “That’s a lot of saving money for students as well.” 

Barnes & Noble also has access to more titles and research materials as a national platform than the University Store. 

Recruitment and Employment 

Grechcarter says that the recruitment process will occur after conversations with all current full-time and student workers who are interested in working at Barnes & Noble. She explained that this process with current student employees will begin at the end of this week.

“We also feel like with what we’ll be doing to the store and our outreach, we really look like we’re going to be adding more staff as well,” she said. “That’s important to us, not from just a service standpoint, but really understanding the campus and getting that information from our students who work for us. So we think that we have a lot to offer students as well. We have a strong starting rate of pay.” 

A New Personalization Station 

Barnes & Noble will offer a personalization station, where students, parents, and alumni can put anything they want on t-shirts and jerseys. Merchandise can help support events for parents’ weekend and football season, according to Stalnaker. 

“We really want to meet students at the very beginning of their journey, and so the fans and alumni, we’re going to kind of come in there, even though we’re not meeting them on their first day of classes or their on-campus experience,” Gretchcarter said. “But we have a great alumni channel, which means that we will meet them when they’re on campus in every way that we can, and then be able to offer the same level of service and a large variety of items to them that they may not have now across because we do connect with fanatics, which is one of the larger online e-commerce retailers, and we’ll be able to have a better idea of what they want and be able to provide that seamlessly for them.”

Barnes & Noble will also be able to bring popup shops to the baseball stadium, selling merchandise the University Store wasn’t able to sell before. 

Transition 

The University Store will be closed from April 5 till April 13 with plans to reopen on April 14, on both Statesboro and Armstrong campuses. 

“That’s our transition week, so that’s when we kind of move things around, kind of put our kind of set and flavor together. We do staff training, and then we’ll be open on Monday the 14th,” Gretchcarter said. 

“I think we’re excited about being able to bring the power of another national market into our retail portfolio.” Engagement and Communications Strategist April Burke said. “You know, we have Chick-fil-A, we have Starbucks now we’ve got Barnes and Noble so to be able to offer this to our students on our campuses, I think is a really huge convenience in addition to their experience.”