The economy’s current state has heavily impacted many aspects of the Cal State University, and 49er Shops is no exception.
“We’ve had our own sets of challenges,” said Rosa Hernandez-Henderson, director of communications and human resources of 49er Shops.
According to its 2010 taxe summary, the 49er Shops’ total expenses outweighed total revenues by about $2 million, meaning that 49er Shops Inc.spent more than it earned in 2009.
49er Shops’ controller Robert de Wit said the shops’ greatest loss comes from a decrease in textbook sales at the bookstore.
In terms of dollars, textbook sales have gone down about 30 percent, or $3 million, in the past four years.
De Wit said mainly three things have caused this drop: rental and digital options, the current state of the economy, and external competition.
“There are huge difficulties from the standpoint that customers have more choice,” de Wit said. “It’s … an explosion of Internet sales, and we’re going to see that as a continuum.”
Students now have many other options through which to acquire their textbooks, such as rental books, digital books and purchasing used or new books through Amazon.com.
However, this has not stopped the bookstore from providing price comparisons of used, new and rental books on their website, as well as prices of other textbook retailers.
“Our goal is to give the students choice, to make sure they have all kinds of options, but we’re still trying to be the first option of choice,” de Wit said.
Hernandez-Henderson said the bookstore also partners with faculty to make textbooks more available to students.
49er Shops, which manages the convenience stores on campus as well, is a non-profit auxiliary of the CSU system and is a part of 90 public auxiliary organizations from all CSU campuses.
Hernandez-Henderson said 90 percent of the 49er Shops’ workers are students, and the shops provide scholarships for their workers and other students campus wide.
“We were put on the properties to support the universities,” Hernandez-Henderson said.
The shops also make donations to Cal State Long Beach organizations and facilities on-campus, such as Associated Students Inc. and the renovation of the Outpost Grill, said de Wit.
“What we earn is going right back into the campus,” de Wit said. “What is bought on campus stays on campus.”
De Wit said the 49er Shops were able to contribute about $5 million to CSULB about four or five years ago. This past fiscal year, they were only able give $1.8 million back to the university.
Still, Hernandez-Henderson does not seem concerned about the shops’ financial state.
She said the 49er Shops is not looking to expand, as their customer base is not changing.
“For us as an auxiliary, our mission is the school’s mission–to be a good service to students,” Hernandez-Henderson said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
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