Trends in College Retail How Stores Are Moving Forward

By Sara Karnish

The past year essentially upended every aspect of life. From education to holiday celebrations, workspaces to in-person shopping, the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the few events to affect everyone in some way. As something of a niche in retail, college stores are in the position of serving both the education and retail communities. When COVID hit, college stores faced significantly less traffic in both of their key markets. Campuses were empty due to virtual learning and foot traffic in the community was down due to customers working from home.

However, store operators interviewed for this article said they are stronger and better because of the last 12 months.

From a physical perspective, college stores implemented many of the same precautions as other businesses—Plexiglas barriers at the sales counter, hand sanitizing stations throughout the store, and implementing mask requirements. Each store has adjusted operations based on applicable respective safety regulations.

“Our business right now is a combination—a little bit of in-store shopping, a little bit of curbside, and a lot of shipping,” said Lori Fazio , chief operating officer of Wesleyan RJ Julia Booksellers at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. “The University has run a strict campus. When the students are available to leave campus, they can come to the store. We also deliver things up to the campus as well.”

Jodi Askew , giftware buyer, and Mary Sivertson , clothing buyer, for the NDSU Bookstore at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., said their usual amount of in-store traffic has been down significantly. “Our traffic is starting to come back a bit. We’ve had strong web sales. Our fall football season moved to spring with the first game on February 21 with limited fans. We will be having a spring graduation ceremony with limited guests. Our clothing and gift departments are very event-driven, so the key has been to maximize event opportunities we have now, and keep doing all the online promotions we can,” she explained.

Deb Sandness , manager of the Bismarck State

College Bookstore in Bismarck, N.D., said “Right now we’re holding our own. We’re down in sales, but there’s been a shift in textbook materials—instead of hard copy books, students are needing to purchase access codes for online textbooks. We just don’t have a profit margin for that. The [textbook] area is slowly

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