Back to School

Well, it's almost August. That means just one more month of summer break before classes resume. Summer has always been a time of renewal and rebuilding mentally and emotionally before embarking on another year of the college experience. I remember back when I was in my undergraduate days, and this was the time of year I started to get antsy to get back to class, Stevens Point, and out of my parents house! Rest assured UWSP, we are antsy to get you back!

At the beginning of every summer staff of the University Store and Text Rental breath a sigh of relief that the school year is over, just like the students. The summer is a time for us to slow down a bit, get projects done, and renew ourselves for the coming academic year. We're working hard all summer long, albeit at a slightly slower than our normal crazy pace, to get ready to welcome students back to campus. Here's what we've been doing this summer to get ready for back to school:

• Sally and her staff in TR have spent the last month or so, and will continue for the next few weeks, setting up text rental so that it will be neat, clean and in the proper order, with enough books for everyone come the end of August when rental books start flying off the shelves.
• Alice and various helpers have been ordering, receiving and shelving the supplemental book area with the non-rental books instructors request. They'll be starting to shelve these books in the next month so that they too are ready for back to school. Remember, we suggest that you go to class first before purchasing books. We have them listed as required and optional based on book orders we receive, but your instructor may have other plans once class starts. Avoid unnecessary purchases by waiting until you've gone to class and confirmed both your need for the book, and your decision to stay enrolled in that class.
• Erin and her staff have been receiving all the new clothing and gift items ordered for the fall semester. Some of those items have been pictured in the blog, more are in store, very cool items! I'm excited for the start of the semester when everyone comes back to see the variety of items we have in-stock now. The moose up top is one of my favorite new gift items. He's so big and cuddly! Erin has also been trying to figure out what art and school supply items to order for back to school with out over ordering. We found a new source for art bundles that will have better packaging and off site compilation, students will save...well, a bundle!

What a lot of stuff we've been doing this summer, and that's just since July began! We're almost ready, in just about three weeks everything will be ready to go for UWSP to get life back in it, and students back on campus!

New "World of Good" items

We have ordered and received some very cool new World of Good products. This company has a very cool mission. They provide high quality, ethically sourced products from 34 nations. Many of their producers are impoverished and make money by creating unique and fun products for WOG. What a cool company, with a great cause.

Pictured here are some bowls and baskets made out of recycled magazines. They are literally strips of folded magazine pages glued together in a very attractive fashion. They are very cool. We also have new scarves, jewelry and other non imprinted gift items from WOG as well.

Highlights.

OK. So I can't get the pictures to do what I want them to do....Arrg. I guess instead I'll be showcasing some of our new products periodically. Here's the first installment.

We've gotten a lot of organic, recycled and green products in. Here is a display of some of the items. I particularly like the "don't be trashy" shirt.

This week at the University Store

Greetings all,
This week at the University Store sees us continuing to prepare for the start of the Fall 2008 semester. We are getting in tons of new books, clothing and gifts. Erin and her staff did a great job picking out a bunch of great new items in all areas of the store. Alice is doing a good job getting all the books in for the next semester too. Whew. Busy, busy.

This week's sales are: 40% off non-imprinted gifts, 30% off select sweatshirts, an additional 15% off clearance merchandise, and special savings on the item(s) of the week. I'll post a bunch of pictures in a separate post (item's of the week with this post).

Next post: Bargain books.

Enjoy,
Stephanie

Innovation

in·no·va·tion: noun
1. something new or different introduced
2. the act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.

I attended a conference on innovation this past weekend. It was put on by the National Association of College Stores (NACS), so it was specifically geared towards our industry. It was interesting. I learned about emerging trends in technology. Did you know that experts claim that we will experience more change in technology in the next five years then we have over the last 20. Stop and think about that. We've had a tremendous amount of change in the last 20 years just in terms of how we save data, floppies, zips and flash drives! What about music, and movies, and games. Wow. That's exciting for those of you who like and "get" technology, scary for those of us who are a little technophobic. I also learned that those little deal-e-o's on amazon that allow you to see inside a book are called "widgets" (say it with a British accent and that's how I learned it). How fun. And I brought a lot of interesting idea's home with me too.

The most interesting point was this, innovation isn't about digital books, e-books, or technology; it is about the "act of innovating" as in the definition above. The introduction of new things or methods. In order for the University Store to keep you, our customers, happy we need to be innovative, creative, new. Do you have suggestions? What is it we need to do? Of course, everyone will say lower prices, but in many cases we offer items at the lowest prices we can based on what we are paying out in product cost, shipping, salaries etc. What else, other than lower prices? Book clubs? New product lines? Certain services? What are you looking for UWSP? Tell me: spope@uwsp.edu.

Inventory

Well it's been a week since we completed the year end physical inventory. This year's PI went very well thanks to some very careful planning and a bunch of great people working on it this year. We started early, just like last year, at 7:30am, but this year we were completed by about 4pm! Everyone worked really hard and got things done! Extra thanks go to Erin 'Rai Rai' Raikowski for PI pre-work, Aaron Leist (HRC) for day-of coordination, the 'geek squad' Jon and Derek for day of support, and Logan Degenhardt, Amanda Pohlod, Tiffany Thompson and Liz Howard for 'volunteering' to help count!

Inventory is a much disparaged event. You hear all kinds of horror stories about things that can and do go wrong. People shudder just to talk of inventory, but ultimately it's not so bad. It's just tedious. Lots of counting, lots of being accurate, lots of looking things up and correcting errors, and even more counting. However, it's all done in a relaxed atmosphere, cool music, great people, no customers! I think the build up to inventory is hell, but the day itself is pretty fun.

If you missed the inventory reduction sale we have some good sales this week too. We have 30% off a t-shirt when you purchase a full priced sweatshirt, 30% off one imprinted glassware item when you purchase a full price t-shirt, 50% off an imprinted folder when you purchase a full priced imprinted notebook, and of course our item's of the week for 35% off. This week's items are a purple and gold UWSP pillow and a green or blue Stevens Point Pointers with paw sweatshirt. That's the picture attached here.


Have a good week!
The Pope

Maiden Voyage

Greetings all,
Today is the maiden voyage of the "We heart the University Store" blog. I've never blogged before, so we'll see how this whole thing pans out together! I'll be talking about what's going on in the University Store from time to time, including sales etc. but also about the college store industry, topics that affect our store, and colleges and universities nationwide. Please feel free to post comments and questions about the store. I'll try to give good answers!

The Pope