The Barnes & Noble College opened on Monday, following a week of renovations to the space previously occupied by Georgia Southern’s University Store.

A temporary manager with Barnes & Noble College anonymously gave information about changes to the store.

“So, with us being a Barnes and Noble College, we do cater towards college campuses and university life. A lot of what the students will experience will be the same,” she said.

She also said the GSU store “will still have the merchandise” and “Georgia Southern pride, as well as snacks and school supplies, and textbooks.”

Most changes will occur “on the back end” and “the level of operation should be seeing a positive increase”, according to the temporary manager. 

“I believe there will be a positive increase with the company of Barnes & Noble College behind it. We do have a bit more power, so we can get items that are special requests,” she said. “We can have a little bit more backing in our textbook knowledge. All of that should show a positive reflection for the students.”

Addison Durrence, a part-time supervisor of the GSU store, also agreed there will be positive changes. 

“Yeah, again, it’s just a lot of getting used to since we have only been doing this, like, a week, but I think there will be a lot of positive changes once we get entirely comfortable with the new systems and how everything is running again,” Durrence said.

The system used in the bookstore is “different” than what Durrence is used to. 

“It’s kind of going back to how it originally was before, um, we had the old system,” she said. “So this system we have and how we’re doing it now is equivalent to how whenever I first started, so it is definitely deja vu for me.”

Kiera Phillips, a radiology major, said that “not much has changed about the store” and “things have their own section.”

Kauliid Wright, a first-year graphic design major, said “as long as we are able to get the same stuff, I don’t think it matters too much.”

Erick Piña, a first-year psychology major, shared some concerns he had about the new bookstore.

“Um, I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” he said. “Like, are they gonna make profit off of us? I don’t know how I feel about that. Is the store just making profit for the benefit of the store and the students, or is this corporation just going to make money off of us?”

Piña also recognized how Barnes & Noble College could impact students positively.

“With a big corporation, there could be a lot more money involved, so I could see some improvements,” he said.