2020 was really bad and I think 2021 may turn out to be even worse. We'll see but it does not look good.
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Adoption of E-texts is poor. Students don't like them. The threat isn't from e-books, the threat is from terrible management. No one is being taught how to run a college bookstore. Employees with experience are let go (pay get too high). Management sees no value in how to run a college bookstore.
The pandemic has forever changed higher education. Textbooks will be obsolete. Digital is here to stay. Professors reluctantly allowed them as an option pre-Covid. Now that’s all they want. No one needs a middleman for that. Smaller schools that were already struggling are taking their last breaths now. Follett is pushing online sales with hardly any GM inventory in stores. Checking on book orders and hearing over and over we are on a credit hold is the norm. Most stores are running with 1 person (SM). We are Pong in a PS5 world now
Unfortunately even if things were to go completely back to normal, we will probably not improve that much. For May, they will probably base payroll off of last May when we were closed to the public. The Graduation will probably be the store manager on-site by themselves with $100 of merchandise. Our payroll for January is way under what we had for Fall rush, and we were short staffed then. We had to cut our store-open hours drastically because of the payroll cuts to staff. As a result, we make less money. We had to drastically cut our QTCs and then send the books we worked so hard to get out to other stores. As a result, students order the books from somewhere else and we make less money. Unless the higher-ups learn how to run a business, I agree with the OP that 2021 will be worse than 2020 for Follett.
When they're trying to sc-ape every last cent owing in AR you know how dire the situation is.
Last one out turn off the lights, please.
One has to wonder how long they can last with being so behind in payments to their suppliers.
I'm looking for a bombshell announcement any day.
Surprisingly this ship just won't sink. Considering the MILLIONS of dollars this company is behind in paying their creditors, unless they announce a bankruptcy, my guess is that the banks will dead-bolt the doors soon. The warehouses in McHenry and Woodridge are floor to ceiling high with outdated books. Book Fairs is/ was such a disaster, the VP and director resigned. B&T buyout? That didn't help either. The rest are just hanging by a thread waiting to get axed. The company just announced that eCommerce is at an all-time high during a pandemic....... isn't everyone buying and ordering online????? Nothing new there. I wonder what the founders say? Hopefully they're in negotiations to try to sell off the business before the banks take over. Sad.
The time for "running this business correctly" has long past. The only thing left to do is pull the death sheet and send it off to the crematorium. This s—er is done and there is no return from the abyss!
Same store year over year performance is a lagging indicator. Returning to a safe campus is the goal. When we achieve that, the numbers will rebound.
TL's incompetence will not have changed, however. In a competitive environment, follett is still lacking. Until this company is run correctly, the future at follett is bleak.
But OP wasn't talking about normalcy. He/she was saying 2021 will be worse than 2020 for the business. A small commencement is better than zero commencement. A school reopening at with 50% of students in person is better than a school being fully closed. A store being reopened even with limitations is better than a store being closed. Things may not be back to pre-COVID levels for a few years, but 2021 absolutely will be an improvement over 2020.
Follett will still be a dumpster fire, because they were even before COVID, but saying 2021 will be worse than 2020 is not based in reality.
Things are not going to get better until.................People start social distancing and wearing a mask. We have as of Tuesday morning only 556,000 (thousand) people have been vaccinated. And that's only one shot. Remember we need 2. Just in the United States there are 326.7 (million) people. We have along way to go. Plus we still have people coming into the United States from other countries that are still infected. Nothing will be back to normal for school my guess is till January of 2022. May of 2021 you will not still not be able to have huge commencement ceremonies. So that is a large loss in sales of graduation gowns and
misc. graduation items. Sorry but we have a long way to go to normalcy!
Things are going to get better. Schools are going to reopen, especially as the vaccine becomes more available and more robust testing regimens roll out. They will have commencements and reunions. Sports will resume. Folks will want to get out and start doing things again, and that will involve shopping. It's not going to happen this winter, but next fiscal year will be a significant improvement over this one.
Really, what could possibly make you think things are going to get better?
Science and Data!
What are you smoking?
What makes you think 2021 will be worse?