The Cypress College Bookstore celebrated their official grand opening under new private ownership Thursday.
After being independently operated in the previous years, the bookstore will now be operated under new ownership by Follett Mangement. According to Ryan Burnett, the store manager, Follett manages almost a thousand campus bookstores across the U.S. and Canada including Stanford University, the University of Miami as well as more local campuses such as Cerritos, and Goldenwest College.
Jayson Loots (left), Textbook Manager, and Ryan Burnett, Store Manager, stand outside the Cypress College Bookstore on its grand opening.
“The Follett Higher Education group partners with a campus so that we can offer products and services which in some cases was not previously offered,” said Burnett. “For example, a rental program which can save students up to 40 to 60 percent of the cost of a new textbook for about to 45 percent of all of our eligible titles this fall.”
These opportunities also include students having the capability to rent textbooks, access textbooks available on other campuses, as well as order textbooks digitally through their iPads, Kindles or smartphones.
Jayson Loots, the textbook manager, explains the new online ordering process system. “Whenever a student goes to our website and they place an order for a book, if we have the book in stock whether new or used we fulfill it, however if they select a copy that we may not have at our store, but a store within the area has like Cerritos, the order will get sent over to them, they will fulfill it and then depending on whether the student requested to have it shipped to their home or to be picked up here, and they will get an email letting them know their order is ready.”
All students are encouraged to stop by the bookstore and take advantage of all the new available ways, online, digital, or rental, to save money throughout the semester. The bookstore can also be found online at cypresscollegebookstore.com.
For the grand opening, the bookstore offered 20% off of all apparel and gift items such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, pint glasses, hats and sweatshirts that day. The also gave away free snacks for students such as popcorn, cookies and candy. They also held raffles for students in which they won exciting prizes such as an 8GB iPod Nano Shuffle or a Nokia Coolpix camera.
After taking advantage of the free fresh popcorn, Christian Praslin, 18, a communications major, won an iPod Nano Shuffle shortly after signing up. “When I found out after they called me, I was stoked, it was really cool. It was totally random too, so I freaked out when they told me I had actually won something.”
So throughout the semester all students are encouraged to stop by the bookstore and take advantage of the new opportunities to buy any course materials which are now offered under the new ownership, Follett Mangement.
