Bookstore enhancements offer ASU community savings, convenience

Visitors to Arizona State University Sun Devil Campus Stores may recognize new features in place made possible by the Follett Higher Education Group (FHEG), which now manages ASU bookstores operations. Follett provides affordable retail options, a larger assortment of book titles, and prides itself in providing the very best customer service. Following an intensive evaluation during spring 2011, an ASU evaluation committee selected Follett.

“Members of the ASU community already are benefitting from Follett’s vast network of more than 800 campus stores, which enables store patrons to take advantage of competitive pricing and used-book availability,” says Sam Wheeler, executive director, Auxiliary Business Services at ASU.

So far, physical enhancements to the Tempe campus store location include new paint, shelving, fixtures, and carpeting. There also is more space dedicated to ASU-branded merchandise on the retail floor, and the HP Print on Demand center was moved to the back of the store to free up more space near the entrance. Follett also will fund various remodel initiatives for the Sun Devil Campus Stores retail operations, introduce new textbook rental programs for ASU students, and offer a new merchandise catalog for the ASU community.

What is new?

• A store of affordable options – available both on campus and online at efollett.com

• Rent-A-Text – Follett’s Rent-A-Text has saved students more than $130 million in its very first academic year across its network of managed stores. Rent-A-Text presents a huge savings opportunity for students.

• CafeScribe.com and growing digital resources – a completely rebuilt eBook platform – designed and built directly by students, faculty and their feedback. CafeScribe.com offers a variety of titles providing savings of 40 to 60 percent over the cost of new books. With huge savings, one-click highlighting summaries that enable highlighted passages to be swiftly aggregated, as well as note sharing and in-text dialogue capabilities with professors and classmates, CafeScribe.com quickly is becoming a popular choice for course materials.

• The largest selection of used – Being part of the largest network of campus stores, ASU has access to the biggest selection of used books in the marketplace.