I took a walk on the University of Denver campus the other day. There weren't too many people around, just a few new students and their parents, but that will change this Monday - the first day of classes at DU. As regular blog readers know, I worked as the Finance Manager of the DU Bookstore for 28 years, until the bookstore was outsourced by the university. The start of classes was a truly busy time for the store, and the entire staff, in addition to a lot of temporaries, would work on the sales floor for several weeks.
Making sure everything ran smoothly was a top priority, and a major effort was made to have all the books on the shelf by the first day, and that lines at the cash registers moved quickly. Cards with the time random customers arrived at each line were handed out, and given to the cashier when they were rung up, to make sure the wait time was reasonable. The bookstore was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group by DU back in 2012, to guarantee an income stream, even though the store had always made a profit. The administration also wanted to show the Board of Trustees that staff numbers were being reduced, even though the bookstore funded it's own payroll. For the year I worked there after the store was outsourced, before they could by contract terms legally lay me off, I found that Follett did not take "rush" nearly as seriously. Limited numbers of books were ordered to reduce overstock returns, requiring many special orders and angering students. Cashiers would sometimes be scheduled to leave all at the same time, with just me at the register at peak sales periods, prompting a call to the offices - where management was sheltering in place - to point out that fact. Fortunately, Follett alienated so many students that eventully those lines got a lot smaller during the start of classes. I wonder what "rush" will look like at the old DU Bookstore this year? Glad I won't be there to find out.
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