BOG drops Barnes and Noble for Follett contract

Follett, the nation's largest college bookstore operator, will succeed Barnes and Noble's more than 26 years of business with the Truman State University Bookstore.

The Board of Governors unanimously passed a resolution last Saturday to sign a five-year contract with Follett, which operates more than 880 college bookstores nationwide.

The decision was based on the findings of the bookstore contract selection committee that University President Troy Paino appointed after Barnes and Noble's five-year contract which will expire this year.

Unlike Barnes and Noble, Follett only provides services to educational institutions and focuses on  online bookstores and pre-owned textbooks and workbooks, according to the company's website.

"It was the sense of the committee that Follett was better positioned to really go through that transition and to help keep us on the cutting edge of the change in the textbook industry," Paino said.

The members of the committee thought Follett might also be able to provide cheaper and more options for merchandise and apparel in addition to cheaper and a larger variety of textbooks, Paino said.

"We've been with Barnes and Noble a long time," Paino said. "I think they've served the University very well. This isn't meant as an expression of sincere unhappiness, but I think that we were at a point in time in our history where we were going to move forward in this very changing industry."

Budget Director Dave Rector said the changing textbook industry influenced the decision to switch to Follett.

"One part about the bookstore contract I think is important is the industry we're in right now and how it's dynamic and changing," Rector said. "It's really switching from traditional bookstores where perhaps you focused on selling new books with some rentals, to the market [that] is really shifting more to the focus on rental books and online sales."

The committee consisted of a Board member, a faculty member, an academic dean, an Information Technology Services representative and a student. The committee evaluated three companies for the new contract — Barnes and Noble, Follett and Nebraska Book Store — and reviewed their contracts with various college bookstores.

"We were looking at fair [financial] return for Truman and we're trying to save some money for students," committee co-chair Judy Mullins said.

After initial research, the committee eliminated Nebraska Book Store from the bidding process, Mullins said.  The committee then asked Barnes and Noble and Follett about their visions for the future and plans for the University Bookstore. The committee unanimously voted to recommend Follett for the contract, Mullins said.

Board member Matthew Potter said Follett emerged from the bidding process as the best fitting candidate.

"The analysis the committee did is primarily looking ahead that Follett seems to be better positioned with online sales and their focus on rentals and also the recommendations from references from campuses currently being served by Follett," Potter said.

Arizona State University also made the decision to contract Follett for their bookstore in February after operating an independent, "in-house" bookstore for years, said ASU communications manager Michael Hegarty. ASU also evaluated Barnes and Noble.

"We took a three to four-month bid process to look at other ways to see if we would be in a better position to have [the bookstore] basically outsourced to a bookstore operating company, and so it was determined that Follett was the best candidate for that," Hegarty said.

Hegarty said Follett's alignment with the changing textbook industry would allow the company to provide more variety at potentially lower prices.

"We just realized that … in the changing evolution of technology of college campus bookstores that Follett was the best one that allowed us to go that next step by having a group that operates almost 900 college campus bookstores out there," Hegarty said. "The technology aspects they have through their e-books and also through their rental book program … we thought it would be a better way to offer more services for our students as well as services for our staff."

Paino said that although the bookstore's three employees currently work for Barnes and Noble, Follett indicated they would offer them job interviews.

"It would be our sincere hope that they would transfer to Follett in the process, but that is completely up to Follett," Paino said.  "We can't tell another company what to do in terms of who to hire and who not to hire."

Steve Pennington, Truman State University bookstore manager, declined to comment.