Bookstore sales steady despite rumors of layoffs

The UCCS bookstore says its sales are going relatively well despite talk of layoffs and slumping business.

"We've never laid off anyone," said bookstore manager Carla Fleury. The bookstore started off January with 13 temporary employees. Currently there are 11 employees, in addition to 10 permanent part-time student employees.

The temporary employees are a necessity for the bookstore. "We hire temps because students have classes everyday and can't work an eight hour [shift] every day," explained Fleury.

Student employee Audra King enthusiastically asserts that her job at the bookstore is the best job she has ever had. She said what she loves the most is "the responsibility. My friends can come by and visit, it's convenient and it's a really positive environment. And it will look good on my resume." As far as the seasonal employees are concerned she expresses sincere gratitude with their presence. "I'm really glad we have them because it gets so busy. I don't think we could handle rush without them."

The rest of the bookstore is business as usual. According to Fleury, the foot traffic has increased this semester but a profitability statement was not available as of print. "At the end of last quarter we were down by just a very small percent. Just a few thousand dollars, but overall we're up a little," she said.

Fleury attributed the stable business to "healthy sales on non-text book items." Text books have a low profit margin, since the price cannot be raised to much more over the cost of the books. Other items, like clothes and supplies, are much more profitable, Fleury said.

The sales are analyzed regularly by department, and the department that has shown the best sales is clothing. "We have a good selection. People like what they see," said Fleury.

Fleury speculates that the most comprehensive and probable reason for what she indicated was a relatively high demand for UCCS clothing wass the opening of the event center and the FIGHT club.

Fleury also said online textbook reservations have increased. "The nature of the college bookstore business is shifting from in-store pickup to online reservations." Fleury said this is the "biggest trend" and the number of online orders increases every semester. So far this year they have filled approximately 1000 online orders.