Barnes and Noble seeks contract renewal
As Barnes & Noble’s contract is nearing its expiration date of June 2019, a committee of USD faculty is developing a new request for proposal (RFP) for a new campus bookstore.
Barnes & Noble has been at USD since 2002 and plans to submit a proposal in order to be considered for a contract renewal.
Darby Ganschow, director of auxiliary services and manager of the USD purchasing office, is responsible for developing RFPs and contracts for potential vendors. In an email interview with The Volante, Ganschow said not all contracts have set expiration dates.
“There is no set time limit for contracts, it depends on the type of contract, the scope of services and negotiations with the vendor,” Ganschow said. “We have not identified the exact terms for a new bookstore contract; the committee will work on it.”
John Howe, the associate dean of student services and the chair of the bookstore RFP committee, said the Barnes & Noble contract has been extended several times since the original contract in 2002.
“There were some modifications over time to meet students’ needs, like things like textbook rental programs that weren’t in existence in the earlier part of the contract, like e-books,” Howe said.
Both Howe and Ganschow said the committee will be looking at other book retail options other than Barnes & Noble, such as Follet Higher Education Group or other online book retailers. However, Howe said they are looking to keep the same type of store.
“We’re really looking to keep something like what we already have here, where there’s a physical store that is run by a third party vendor that will meet the best needs of our students,” Howe said.
Howe said the committee plans to finalize the RFP by October of 2018.
“Then in October, it would go up… and we’d have everyone who has reported information back to us look through it,” Howe said. “Then the committee will look through that and give recommendations to the administration.”
Although Barnes & Noble’s contract is expiring, Howe said the store has been beneficial to campus and has fulfilled the requirements of the current contract.
“They have healthy customer relationships. With their reach being really broad, they’re able to pull in aspects of used books,” Howe said. “There’s a large pool of other corporate stores that they’re able to pull from.”
Howe said the contract renewal process is a good time to review USD’s and Barnes & Noble’s partnership and see what could be improved.
“It’s good practice to say we’ve had a healthy and good partnership with Barnes & Noble, but let’s do this process and let’s see what’s out there,” Howe said. “It’s a chance for us to evaluate our relationship and really kind of move forward in a positive way with Barnes & Noble or whoever the contract ultimately lands with.”
Angela Miller, the Barnes & Noble store manager, said the store has succeeded in saving students money and meeting their needs. She also said they plan to continue developing programs such as the Open Educational Resources (OER) program if their contract is renewed.
“We are working to ensure that we are saving our students the most money as possible,” Miller said. “We’re really very proud of the savings that we’ve saved our students here on our campus… In the past five years, I want to say, we’ve saved over $2 million for our students.”
Miller has been with the USD store since its arrival. She said Barnes & Noble has had great experiences with USD in the past 16 years.
“It is true that our contract is up next summer and of course we have good positive long-standing relationships with USD,” Miller said. “We’re very proud of our commitment to our campus, but when contracts come up, they do have to go back out for bid.”
