Students are getting their books faster from the GW Bookstore because of efforts to shorten traditionally long lines.
I thought it was a little more organized this year and it went quicker, junior Angeli Desai said.
The store’s staff has made several changes, including new procedures for waiting in line and checking bags at the door. Students must check their bags before they enter the store, instead of dropping them at a stand in the front of the store, and there is one main cashier line.
It’s definitely made the flow smoother and the store open and shoppable, store Director Patricia Lee said.
Lee, who joined the staff in March, said the old bag-check system created noisy confusion and caused people to trip over the bags.
Lee said she is also happy with the new procedure for waiting in line. Students wait in one line that feeds to all store cash registers, instead of choosing one of about 15 lines. The system mirrors the procedure that most banks use to serve their customers.
I think we have done such a good job as the new management team, Lee said. I don’t think anyone has waited more than ten minutes.
Steve Duesterhaus, the store’s textbook manager, said students now have several options for buying books, including shopping in-store, online or reserving their textbooks to pick up at a convenient time.
Students who purchase books online receive e-credits for future purchases if a student buys more than $200.
As Follet faces stiffer competitions from competing ventures such as VarsityBooks, Big Words and Amazon.com, Follet has adapted by adopting a low-price guarantee that will refund the difference in cash if a cheaper book is found from a local vendor.
The biggest advantage (to Follet customers) is the availability of used books, Duesterhaus said. You can return it after you buy with no restrictions.
As the rush week for purchasing textbooks ends, Lee said the management team will meet to discuss possible changes.
We’re already talking about how we’re going to make things better, Lee said.
Before her arrival at GW, Lee worked fourteen at the University of Hartford. She worked under Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, then president of Hartford, until he left for GW in 1988.
Follet has several on-going promotions to attract students, including a Gap gift certificate and a Web decoder for an on-line chance to win free tuition for four years.
We’re working very hard with stressing customer service, said Lee, who explained that typically the bookstore hires agency temporary workers. This year we’ve hired dozens of student employees.
The bookstore has offered student workers 25 percent off the price of textbooks and $8 an hour as long as they work through the text book rush week.
Junior Eddie Rodriguez learned about the deal when he was searching for his books on-line.
Because we’re students we can help them out easier, Rodriguezsaid. It helps them out a lot too, we kind of know where the books arebecause we’ve already shopped here.
Rodriguez said he was having fun working with other students and helping other students.
It’s been great an a way to get a good discount and a little bit ofmoney, Mary Hovorka, a graduate student said.
Hovorka said students have been very polite and emphasized that the job requires good communications skills.
You have to like people, she said.
Inevitably, some students take multiple trips to the bookstore, searching for titles that gradually are shipped in.
This is about the third or fourth time I’ve been here because they never seem to have all the books at once, said freshman Preston Spradling, who said he only waited in line once. I think you would have to do that with a population of this size.
Some students accustomed to other universities said they were impressed by the store.
There’s not that many lines. I thought they were going to be a lot longer, said Gary Freitas, a graduate student at University of Maryland, who is taking a class at GW this semester. I think the Maryland bookstore is a lot more crowded today.
