I drank the Kool-aid. I took the money and the promotions. For a year I heard promises and believed we were finally moving in a hard, but better direction. It’s not true. Target date to close is Friday, June 28. If I keep my mouth shut, keep my stores in line, a nice severance for me. Good luck everyone
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Follett was bought by vulture capitalists. Their goal is to dismantle it and sell it for parts.
While that process is ongoing, they need to keep up appearances - open new stores, order merch... But it's all lipstick on a pig.
Layoffs. Shut downs. The push for EA and IA contracts... Amazon and Barnes are both getting out of the business already. Why? Because they recognize it as a a loss.
On top of all that, now the Department of Education is going away. They fund Pell grants. And how many of your students buy with Pell? Take that money out of the equation, and you have massive losses. MASSIVE.
Without Pell, it won't just be the bookstores, it will be the publishers, and even some of the colleges.
It is a downward spiral, a whirlpool from which there is no apparent escape.
Jefferson River Capital is just salvaging scrap from a sinking ship.
The whole company will not shut down. Stores are still being opened- however, IMO the campuses that are not fully integrating with the Access program will probably be the ones to be shut down first. Especially if they have only done a few scant courses with the Access program to test the waters.
I think a lot more smaller stores- or underperforming stores- will close as Follett/JRC backs out of contracts or forces the campuses to cancel the contract so Follett/JRC can move on to different campuses they can try to sell their program to.
The cutting of hours- and I mean DRASTIC cuts- is unrealistic and unacceptable. They are setting us up to fail so they can close stores.
Personally, I think many campuses would be better off in the self-op world. They would be able to choose their own merchandise - none of this cr-p bedding and dorm room cr-p that sits and sits and finally goes on clearance- and focus their attention on what is being sold. They could also hire their own managers and weed out those who are the follett lackeys who do not communicate honestly with their campus contacts.
The buying happens so far ahead that you can’t put a halt to it overnight. Take it from someone that had 2 store close under Follett. Depending how far out they’re working to close down different stores. They had us on a schedule for the store to have percentages off. Since it’s insignia, all of the insignia merchandise that was left, was given to Goodwill, Salvation Army, and women’s and homeless shelters. All the while it was going on they told me the store was not going to be closed. But guess what as the percentages off got higher and higher, I realize the writings on the wall. They would rather take a loss in merchandise stop paying rent and stopping wages stop paying medical and just shut it down. They did not care about the university whatsoever. If you’re shutting your business down, you don’t care about lawsuits because you can’t get money from a company as they go into foreclosure. I don’t think the whole company is shutting down in June but I think it is how the investment company works. They are trying to drain as much capital out of the company before they shut these places down. They bought it losing money and they’re trying to get whatever they can out of any other assets.
Maybe they could use another employee?
There is an independent bookstore down the road from our campus that buys back the kids books for more then what we buy them back for and they order access codes from the publishers. They are doing a booming business and we are losing not only inventory but sales.
Independent Bookstores making a comeback?
They. Do. Not. Care. About. You.
People stirring the rumor mill…
What's the link for the opening/ closing stores?
Well we have nearly 20 new stores between now and the end of June. We have stores moving to EA for Fall.
Whatever additional layoffs are coming and whatever stores are closing I sincerely doubt Follett will cease operating at the end of June. Imagine the lawsuits for breach of contract.
Now we also have a LOT of store closures pending too including a bunch in June and July. It's RFP season. OP probably works at one of these.
No inside knowledge but they've always threatened non access schools that they might pull out of the contract. Maybe that's finally happening?
This is probably just that store. I got let go in the last set of layoffs. They are doing another round may 31st I have read but nothing has been mentioned about June.
I don’t believe this.
I call BS. The merch coming in wouldn’t be coming in if the target date to close was June 28th. Fall merch won’t sell by June 28th. Having fun stirring the pot?? It’s bad enough that we’re all sitting, wait, no time to sit, running around while playing russian roulette. BANG! Were we shot? Nope not this time. When’s the next shot gonna be fired???
The company
Target date to close your store or the whole company?