Consultants weigh in on outsourcing

The plan for possibly outsourcing the bookstore has been a mystery to most students.
So far, the decision has required an elaborate lineup of reports, analysis, consultations and focus groups.

While the debate about outsourcing continues, university administrators are using outside help to weigh the pros and cons of handing ownership over to a larger company like Barnes & Noble. By November, university officials will make a decision.

The university hired consultants from Campus Bookstore Consulting, a Massachusetts-based firm that specializes in college bookstore analysis. These consultants have been around the university for the last several months examining book prices, customer service and general profitability. CBC will also be conducting focus groups Oct. 6 and 7 with faculty and students.

"Everyone has an opinion as to whether the bookstore is doing a good job or a bad job," said Ron Smith, vice president of Finance. "The committee thought it would be prudent to have an outside view—someone who doesn't have anything to gain one way or the other."

One of the leading factors in this decision is its potential financial impact.

As an institutionally run store, the Seattle U bookstore has been very successful—its profits are almost double the national average of university bookstores.

Smith said outsourcing could also be financially beneficial. He said one of the major benefits would be that outsourcing would give the university money up front for bookstore improvements.

But that big check may not be without cost to the university.

"We need to be aware that it would probably come with higher prices," Smith said. "They're here to make a profit. They're not just giving that money away—they're going to make it up sometime, somewhere."

Book pricing numbers are among the most contentious points of the bookstore debate.
Bob Spencer, manager of the Seattle U bookstore, said that in his personal experience, outsourced bookstores have had higher book prices and large discrepancies between the prices in the bookstore and the prices on the outsourcing company's Web site.

"The prices are higher in bookstores because the company needs to pay a commission to the university," Spencer said.

Smith said if the university decides to outsource, they will make sure there is contractual language that gives the university some say in the price of books.

"We want to make sure that we're not unnecessarily increasing the prices for our students," Smith said. "That's the most important thing."

Spencer also worries about potential loss of control of products, especially those that represent the values of the university, such as fair trade, recycled and sweatshop-free products. Spencer believes that, if the bookstore is outsourced, those products will no longer be carried in the store.

Smith said this would not be the case for Seattle U.

"That will be something that we will insist upon," Smith said. "One of our conditions [for outsourcing the store] would be that they continue that program as well as help us with any new ones we may come across. That will be contractually written into the agreement."

Though rumors have been circulating that student employees would only be paid minimum wage, Smith also said if the bookstore were to be outsourced, wages would meet work-study standards.

CBC will present its findings to the bookstore committee in mid-October, and administrators will make their decision by early November. If the store will be outsourced, the university may have a company picked out by the beginning of winter quarter.

Katy can be reached at kmccourt@su-spectator.com.