Volume 67, Issue 3

Pop-Up Bookstore Leaves Campus, to Dismay of Students

by Mitch Appleson

If you have yet to purchase your books for classes, you’ll have to find a venue other than Yeshiva’s bookstore to buy them.  With the closure of the pop-up bookstore, you’ll have to wait until January to make on-campus purchases for both school supplies and Yeshiva apparel.

Operating for the second consecutive year after Posman’s Collegiate Bookstore’s abrupt closure, Yeshiva’s pop-up Barnes and Noble bookstore will be absent from the Wilf Campus for the remainder of the semester.

Student sentiment to this situation overall has been overwhelmingly negative. “They are never open at convenient times, and it should be open throughout the semester for students who add classes,” griped Sy Syms School of Business Junior Josh Wojcman.  Added SSSB Senior Jordan Wolf, “And even when they are open, they work too slowly and often don’t even have the right books.”

Books aren’t the only product missing for the semester.  SSSB Junior Michael Rosner exclaimed, “This is totally ridiculous. I wanted to buy a Yeshiva University sweatshirt, but now I have to wait until the end of January. No wonder no one here shows school spirit by wearing YU apparel – you can only buy when Barnes and Noble feels like opening their doors.” 

SSSB senior Yaakov Sheinfeld, who co-founded Cheaptext.com with Rami Dennis and Noam Magence, explained, “Our school lacks a real campus bookstore.  A real bookstore is open year-round and has some sort of buy-back policy at the end of the semester.  While it’s true that most students have the books they need within the first few weeks of the semester, students still need the bookstore in case they add or drop a class, need to buy school supplies, or purchase school memorabilia.” New York University student Justin Goldberg’s Bookstorm.com was founded for the same purpose as Cheaptext: to provide students with easy access to required textbooks.

The SSSB office agreed that the current situation is certainly not ideal and suggested that the store should be open at least once or twice a month after the first several weeks of the semester. The office noted, however, that it was not practical for Barnes and Noble to keep schlepping everything back and forth, as they are not allowed to leave anything on campus for a lengthy period of time.  The office did suggest that entrepreneurs like Goldberg and Sheinfeld should consider selling supplies.

Bobbi Kroman, the general manager of Barnes and Noble, said that the bookstore was open more days this year – 20 percent more than last year – in an attempt to accommodate both the undergraduate students and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, which operated on a different schedule.  Kroman acknowledged that because the days were sporadic, it caused confusion regarding store hours.  In addition, the store was empty on many of its open nights, primarily due to student ignorance of the schedule.

Noting the problems, Kroman asserted that improvements have begun.  In January, the Barnes and Noble bookstore will have “point of sale” electronic registers, as well as telephone lines, which will greatly reduce the lengthy lines that customers have faced until now.  The store is also continuing a buy-back policy, which started this past May.  Kroman hopes more people will take advantage of this program in December.

While Kroman said that the store is certainly not the ideal situation – she wishes the store would be bigger so people could actually shop rather than wait in line to be helped – she hopes more changes will come in the future.

In order to help serve the students’ needs, Kroman requested feedback from everyone, both positive and negative (her email address is bkroman@bn.com).  “The only way to know what to improve is to hear feedback from the customers,” explained Kroman.  Jeffrey Rosengarten, Director of Supporting Services at Yeshiva, noted that he was “very happy” with the success of the bookstore and will continue to support its presence on the Wilf Campus.  Rosengarten also pointed out that Yeshiva apparel is always available on the Yeshiva University Bookstore website, http://www.bkstore.com/yeshiva/merch.html.

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editors.
All content is copyright © Yeshiva University Commentator.