Long term manager and can confirm what the customer is seeing. My daughter is graduating with her MBA from the same school she received her undergrad.
I ordered her diploma frame online, to match the frame she already has for her Bachelor degree.
She has been a customer of the store now for 7 years.
She had to pick up her regalia and since she has other friends graduating she wanted to pick up a few gifts.
Got to the store, Manager in the back processing orders (our order was ready-at least that is what the email said).
She did some shopping then waited in line for 35 minutes, only 2 people in front of her. She would have left but the frame was paid for and she needed regalia.
3 people behind register, nobody seemed to have a clue. 1 student employee, 2 Temps. Even though there were bodies working they had no clue what they were doing. Thankfully my daughter knew well enough the gowns are different, they gave her a Bachelor gown, and they took an additional 10 minutes to retrieve her online order. She told me she was in the store over an hour, only 10 minutes of that was shopping.
Customers were annoyed, complaining, and really frustrated. When she arrived at 11:15am there were only the 2 people in line, when she left there had to have been over 30 (lunch break).
Not a good scene, bad service, unorganized.
11 replies (most recent on top)
Main problem has been and always will be, the college bookstores can not be operated with a "cookie cutter" mentality. They are not Macy's or CVS. You cannot introduce "one" strategy/restructure across the board and expect it to work for all. This latest will only work for some (maybe). I was at a location with strong GM sales and busy year round. We had two FT key staff with multuple p/t and temps to call in as needed. Strong sales, both in-store and online and met the needs of the campus for all events. They lost both FT experienced members with restructure and have yet to replace them. Service is down and within a year contract will be lost. You can't capture those high end merch sales if you are no longer operating the business, but they will learn that soon enough.
I know some schools that are big Financial Aid schools that the clothes and gifts do not sell as the school doesn't let those items go on the vouchers, and those kids don't have the money to pay for them out of pocket. Plus have you seen the price on some of that stuff?
Post ID: @7rwx+1mGsXPvr.
Great.
We can rename them the Follett Spirt Shop & Gifts.
Macy's failures will excel at selling overpriced spirt ware!
Go team! Future so bright you'll need the really overpriced college branded shades!
Morel is gone and new employees have no leadership to guide them. New marketing managers that should be helping with onboarding, supporting the stores are locked up running stores with no staff/managers. If there is a manager (or campus leader) that is still employed, they are too busy doing everything to stay afloat with no staff or no trained staff. I agree many of the large stores had too much staff for many years when they should have been operated by just a couple of key people along with part timers and then temps. I saw many stores over my years that were only busy during rush and end of semester that still used a lot of payroll. Payroll should have been based on month to month sales/goals and a percentage based on total yearly sales. The GM strong stores are where the focus should be, they are the ones that are busy all year and have the most work with the fewest people to do the work.
Let's face it, finally, we are not bookstores when the majority of students purchase their course materials elsewhere. Time to finally rebrand and be considered Campus Stores-focus on what the students/community are willing to buy. Macy's staff are used to selling clothing and gifts, maybe the new leadership sees that and that is why they are hiring in that direction.
I have been touring schools with my daughter over the past year, amazing how different every store is. All of the schools are in the New England area, NH, Maine, Ma, Ct, RI, so far-doing the south over the summer. I know each location has difference merch, based on sales, but there is nothing uniform about the way displays are set, how a mannequin is dressed, windows displayed, front table, counters. Some stores looked like you were walking into a legit business, others looked like it was a yard sale going on. Some staff acted and looked professional, other stores looked like they rolled out of bed and sitting behind the register on their phones without even noticing we walked in. I have been around a long-ish time, and our visits have been before this more recent layoff (pre May 1).
Just had a very similar situation at my son's graduation. Students were saying getting their cap and gown was a nightmare, returning their rental books, equally a nightmare. Store was closed more than it was open (not sure if I believe that one, but closed earlier than in the past). We shopped after the ceremony, mostly out of my curiosity. I felt so bad I wanted to jump in and help. I did not know anyone in the store, nor did my son, all new faces, all 2 of them. I suspect borrowed from another store, new manager, or temp. No name tags so couldn't determine. Store was a mess! Any other time I had been there, which was quite a few times over the past 5 years (1st year while searching schools, 4 years for bach.) The store was always beautifulLy displayed, clean, orderly. Now, embarrassing to admit I worked for the same company.
The institution likely has a plan, too. If the bookstore fails, the will find a new source for course materials. Many universities are building it into tuition and eliminating course materials from the bookless store altogether. There are many companies who will work with colleges and universities to accomplish this.
If the college/university has a plan and JRC has a plan, that leaves you. Do you have a plan? Hint, do nothing is a poor plan.
Current manager...I mean not really a manager since they stripped my title and pay, but I believe it. My staff was layer off, I have 1 part time temp, 1 part time student employees, and me. Rental check in, regalia distribution, grad sales, it is a nightmare. We are open, per requirement of campus, and especially right now with grad events, 51 hours this week and they wanted later than we already stay open. Explain how I do that with the payroll/people I have! Of course customer service is horrible.
The post about JRC having a plan is probably dead center perfect.
They do have a plan on how to make this madness put money in their investors pockets.
If they don't, it will be crash and burn for JRC.
All we can do is sit and wait.
My daughter said that the bookstore is the joke of the campus right now. She said students are talking about it in classrooms and how they miss the old employees who were always there for them. Those employees built a connection with the students and staff. Fall Rush is gonna be he-l.
See what an impact HF has brought to Follett!
Thank you and thank JRC.
Just remember the problems are lazy workers, not our executive chair and all brilliant leaders in The Ivory Tower!