DU Bookstore News! Follett Is Out! Barnes And Noble Is In!

As regular blog readers know, I worked at the University of Denver Bookstore for almost 30 years, most of that time as the Finance Manager of the store. And so, I was very interested to learn that DU announced on April 28th that the DU Bookstore will transition this June from management by Follett Higher Education Group to Barnes and Noble College. The announcement, made by Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business Affairs Mark V. DeLorenzo, included "a very special thank you to Follett for their service to the DU community in managing the bookstore since 2012." In my opinion, it was more like running it into the ground since 2012. That was the year the University of Denver outsourced the store to Follett, laying off the entire staff, including me, instead of offering them alternative employment at the university. Bookstore employees were guaranteed a minimum of one year working for Follett with the same salary and benefits, but it will come as no surprise that many of us were gone exactly one year to the day. And will Barnes and Noble College do a better job than Follett? These companies are chains, and their number one priority is making a profit. When the store was institutionally owned, it made a profit but was much more customer service oriented, very much dedicated to serving students and staff as best as possible. And so, the short answer is no. The photograph above, by the way, was taken by me back in February of 2010 while the store was still operated by the University of Denver. The good old days. Another example of things getting worse instead of better.