Petition Urges UCI Not to Outsource Campus Bookstore

It's always a balance.

Staying in-sourced:

• Higher prices due to higher overhead
• Assumption of liability
• Full control
• Money stays in the community (UCI student, staff, and programs)

Going out-sourced:

• Lower prices due to lower overhead
• Externalized liability
• Less control
• Money goes external to the campus (Privatized revenue/profit)

Anything regarding employment or business practices are typically determined by an outsourcing contract.

I'm undecided in my opinion. I need more information.

There is a lot of incorrect information in this petition. For example, as Dan Dooros stated in the article, student employees would not be laid off. Outsourcing would happen on a more general management level, not individual employees; they would have no reason not to keep the people that are there. They've had to cut the number of employees over the years to stay in the black, without outsourcing. Also, there's no reason to believe there wouldn't be chubby stuffed anteaters for sale - having a national brand doesn't mean they wouldn't make individual products! People expect stuffed mascots, and they will sell whatever people want to buy. If any specific product goes away, it would be because no one is buying it! Meaning it would likely happen without outsourcing as well.

Other misconceptions have to do with how what works for another school will be applied here. On the one hand, a national company will of course learn from their businesses to make decisions, but they wouldn't apply it blindly and not take the community's uniqueness into account; that's just a bad business decision. Additionally, given the size, location, and prestige of UCI, we would be looking to be a flagship location, meaning it's more likely WE would be a model for other campuses, not the other way around.

As for Apple products, I've never been sure how necessary that is in store (people can still get student discounts online), but it wouldn't necessarily go away with outsourcing either. Some (not all) companies proposals would not allow Apple products in the store, but other campuses who have gone this route have worked around it, BT having a small extra Apple shop next door. UCI Administrators have flying all over the country looking at various campus bookstores run by different companies; they are not taking this lightly.

The biggest issue to me is about profitability. The bookstore is currently profitable, barely, but it's profits are going down every year and will soon start losing money, mainly due to continual decreases in textbook sales. If they raise rates, sales will decline even more, but if they lower then, they won't be able to make profits. It's a very tough position for a single store, while a national company can manage that better just based on volume. People talk about giving money back to student programs, but that won't happen of the store isn't making money.

Having said all that, it's not a sure thing by any means, just being explored. But from everything I've heard, they are making a careful and thoughtful decision on this, nor blindly selling out a beloved university gem.

A couple comments

“Five years ago, the campus hired a consultant to look at our bookstore, and the consultant came back with three options to improve it: rebranding the store, making internal operational changes and a recommendation to outsource the store,” said Parham. “For five years, we’ve made all the changes we thought were responsible in maintaining service, but as of March 2016, we’re falling behind. Our store continues to be profitable, but just barely.”

Does anyone have the source of how much this consulting and re-branding costed? I remember reading it was in the mid 6-figures.

The recommendations we followed haven’t changed much in terms of profitability,” said Dooros.

Well, what makes them think this one will work if the other two didn't? Btw, the rebranding isn't impressive at all imo.

“Either we look for someone to do this more efficiently, or we have to raise prices at The Hill above market standards.”

What makes them think the private company won't raise the price? Either they will raise the price, or UCI picked the wrong consultants on trying to figure out how to make the bookstore more profitable. If it's possible to run the bookstore more efficiently, they should have found consultants to show them how to do that. Or, it's not possible, and a private corporation will also need to increase the price of the books.

According to Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Auxiliary Services Dan Dooros, sales at The Hill are down 15 percent and expenses are up 40 percent since the initial consultation.

I wonder where the rising expenses come from? I can see declining sales due to Amazon (and probably due to increasing costs of college leads to less disposable income), but how did expenses increase by 40%? Could it be from this:

“We’ve remodeled the store, we’ve rebranded, improved our web presence, opened up the Hillside Lounge and partnered with Starbucks, but sales just aren’t keeping pace

If so, they made it worse.

I know who they consulted with in the rebranding, but who did they consult with for the bookstore in the first place? Maybe they could have gone to Barnes and Nobles.

I think the solution is pretty obvious; They need to make the bookstore smaller and use that space for other stuff. They know the declining sales are from people buying online. They should get rid of stuff that isn't selling anymore and make the bookstore smaller.

There is only one bookstore on campus, they have a monopoly. College students are more broke and in debt than ever. I think it's pretty stupid that they thought rebranding and remodeling the bookstore will suddenly make students want to spend money there. They should just stick to mainly textbooks, UCI merchandise, and anything else with high sales.

administration submitted a proposal to ASUCI’s Legislative Council and UCI Associated Graduate Students asking for student input on addressing The Hill’s declining profits.

If any of these people are reading this, could you address these issues, or ask the administration if you have access to them?

So far they wasted money on hiring consultants, rebranding, and remodeling. It's okay though, they can just raise student tuition to pay for all that, the students can just take out more loans.

UCI is like the boy who cries wolf.

When they took UCItems from ASUCI and gave it to the bookstore, they said it was because it was about to lose money, but they're still making enough money to make six-figure annual payments to ASUCI. When they spent hundreds of thousands to change the name of the bookstore to "The Hill", they said it was because it was about go into the red, but the bookstore is still profitable. I'm not inclined to believe them now. They use accounting tricks to make the budget say whatever they want to say.