Eight proposals for Student Stores' future — including one from current management

Proposals to manage the operations of Student Stores were due Thursday, and the review process has already started.

The University received eight proposals, including one from current Student Stores management, said UNC spokesperson Jim Gregory.

“We’re very proud of our proposal and we think it offers the best options for all involved,” said Jim Powell, business officer for Student Stores.

In addition to the proposal from Powell’s team, UNC received two proposals from companies that want to take over full operations of Student Stores and five from companies offering kiosks for virtual course materials.

One of the full-service proposals is from Follett, a company that owns more than a thousand student stores nationwide and sparked the privatization conversation by submitting an unsolicited proposal to take over Student Stores during the summer.

The next step is to send the proposals to Campus Bookstore Consulting, a national firm.

“They’ll do a financial analysis,” said Brad Ives, associate vice chancellor for campus enterprises.

A Student Stores Request For Proposal Advisory Committee is being formed to help make the decision on whether the University will outsource, and if so, to whom.

“We’re still in the process of taking final names for (the committee),” Ives said.

The committee will include two student representatives, two representatives from the Employee Forum, two representatives from or chosen by the Faculty Council and representatives from Student Aid, Human Resources, Student Affairs and the Provost’s Office. Mike Patil from Financial Services and Student Body President Houston Summers have already been placed on the committee.

“Based on (the Campus Bookstore Consulting) analysis, we’ll pick our different vendors to come and present to the advisory committee March 14 and 15,” Ives said.

After these presentations, the committee will discuss the pros and cons of each option and forward that to the administration for a final decision.

“I think it’s going to be some time in April,” Ives said. “It will depend on if we went with the virtual textbook provider, we might need more information.”

Powell said the Student Stores proposal was a group effort.

“We didn’t find out we could do one until really early December, so we really weren’t able to get started on it until after the holidays,” Powell said.

Despite the limited time frame, they submitted just in time Thursday.

“We want to maintain the self-operation of the store. We’ve been here for 100 years,” Powell said. “In our proposal everything stays as is except we start renovating and innovating the products and services that we sell.”

Current Student Stores management pitched a hybrid option, where books will remain on the floor but each book will also be offered digitally.

“Right now, quite frankly, there hasn’t been a big demand for — not even eBooks. That’s probably only five percent of our sales at best,” Powell said.

“We know ultimately we’ve got to become a more virtual and digital store. In our five-year plan, starting in the next fiscal year, July 1 of this year, we are going to be doing some testing on different digital delivery services.”

Powell said even if another company wins the RFP, he hopes current management will still be able to have a hand in the store.

“If someone comes in and just wins the textbook portion of the RFP, then it’s uncertain,” Powell said. “It could work that we maintain all the store, or everything but books and just have a partnership with whoever wins the book deal.”

Under the Student Stores proposal, The Daily Grind would remain the way it is. If another company wins, the coffee shop’s future is up to the vendor.

“If you come to UNC as a freshman and there’s no books in here at all, you got to go online and order every book, hope it comes in on time,” Powell said. “We think there’s a bridge before every student is going to want to order their books online, and we would offer that.”

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