Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508240016
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: WS63 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To be more precise, why compete with the on-campus university bookstore?
Plenty of reasons, according to the manager of the 3-month-old University Bookstore Volume Two, located in University Mall.
The University Bookstore on campus is 20 years old, has no place to expand and is isolated from the rest of the Blacksburg community, Steve Glosh, the manager of the mall store, pointed out. Plus, there's no parking.
Those limitations, combined with the fact that nearly two out of three Tech students live off campus, prompted the move.
"We were not doing the kind of job that we wanted to do," and that is expected from the state's largest university, said Donald Williams, Glosh's boss and executive director of Virginia Tech Services Inc. The nonprofit corporation was spun off by the university to operate the two bookstores, vending and concession services on campus.
"By going and getting another store, we were able to provide the number of titles" Tech wanted, modernize and reach out to off-campus students, he said. "We just really outgrew our old store."
"When the opportunity presented itself, we jumped," Glosh said. "This is a perfect outlet."
That opportunity came last summer when Heironimus decided it could do better located near the New River Valley Mall and Marketplace shopping center complex in Christiansburg and moved out of University Mall. The bookstore now operates in the former anchor store's space.
Williams helped scout out other bookstores at universities across the country to get a feel for what the new bookstore should look like. He came up with a store whose cherry-wood floors, upholstered chairs for reading, televisions interspersed throughout, inventory and overall user-friendliness make it a far cry from its original store.
"It's upscale, but it's the type of store that will be there for a long time," Williams said. "College bookstores are changing aesthetics. Our customers demand more now."
The new store, which employs about 30 workers, has 40,000 books - both the textbook variety and a much larger general title inventory than the on-campus store - with special sections for computers, children's books and toys, author signings and Tech apparel.
"Everybody will find something here," Glosh said.
That might be a 5-year-old climbing through a plastic playhouse, the centerpiece of a children's section that mothers rave about.
Or someone like Scott Christianson, who makes a trip to Blacksburg from his home in Radford about once a week to shop for books, music and coffee.
"This is my store of preference," he said, while reclining in a chair, paging through some of the store's discounted volumes. "I've found more than I can afford to buy." He likes the marked-down selections, and the nooks and crannies throughout the store's layout that reveal more and more titles as one wanders through.
Matthew Pitonyak, just graduated from Tech this spring, likes to pick up a Sunday edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which he can't find anywhere else in town. The store sells 40 Sunday editions of newspapers from as far away as Anchorage, Alaska, with daily editions of The New York Times, The Washington Post and in-state newspapers.
An avid reader, Pitonyak said he'd do his shopping for texts there above anywhere else in town - even if his girlfriend didn't work there. He said the overall selection tops every place else.
Both Glosh and Williams were quick to say that opening the store just a few yards away from Printer's Ink, which has been located in the mall for more than a decade, was not an attempt to put the bookstore out of business.
Printer's Ink owner Bill Valentine refused to comment on the competitive situation.
Valentine's store has a second level filled with science-fiction and fantasy titles, a magazine section that rivals the university-sponsored store's, and a smaller selection of general titles. Williams said Tech officials told the bookstore's owner beforehand that they intended to open a
new bookstore in the mall, but Williams said there's room enough for both operations.
"We're not out to take anyone's business," Williams said. "Printer's Ink has a market that they really cater to.
"We're focused, quite frankly, on what's good for students."
by CNB