Advocacy Articles

ARE YOU READY?
By Mark Palmore, Institutional Store Advocate

In the last edition of The Connection, we discussed the success of the recent NACAS meeting in Las Vegas. In this edition we will discuss the surveys conducted by Connect2One and NACS at the NACAS meeting.

If you are in an institutional bookstore, you most likely read with great interest an article in the November 10 Campus Marketplace on the survey NACS conducted at the NACAS meeting. The NACS survey showed that 20% of the administrators who responded to the survey plan to review/evaluate ownership of their campus bookstore. The time frame varied from school to school, but the crucial result here is that your administrators are considering the future of your bookstore! Are you ready for this evaluation? Do you know where your administration stands with regard to your store? If the answer to these questions is yes, congratulations. You are to be commended for being proactive. If the answer is no, the Connect2One Advocacy Program can help you and your store. Simply contact Mark Palmore at C2O Headquarters (800) 563-9034 or mpalmore@connect2one.com.

As we discussed last month, Connect2One also conducted a survey at NACAS. Keep in mind this is the exact same audience (and most likely some of the same people) as NACS surveyed. Our questions related to the perception of the bookstore by students and faculty. The most important finding from the Connect2One survey was that both students and faculty have a much more positive feeling toward their bookstore if it is managed by the institution! And, those administrators with institutional/self-op bookstores prefer a balance of customer service/faculty service and financial return, which differed from that of the administrators with lease store operations. What we see in those responses is that if administrators want to keep their students and faculty feeling positive about their bookstore (and we believe they do), keep it institutional/self-op — don't lose control.

One other piece of information you may find interesting and want to pass on to your boss: In the NACS survey, 28% of the administrators with lease bookstores will be reviewing/ evaluating their bookstore ownership. In the opinion of Connect2One, this is a major development. Are these administrators questioning their decision? Are some administrators not as satisfied with the contract management companies as they thought they would be? We think so, and Connect 2 One will be working with any school who wants to take back their store and return to institutional/self-op store ownership. We want to help them take back control of their store!

Thanks to Julie Traylor and NACS for allowing Connect2One to reference their NACAS survey. For more information on the survey and the various benchmarking tools NACS has available, contact NACS Planning & Research (800) 622-7498: Julie Traylor x2217 or email her at jtraylor@nacs.org.