In Arkadelphia, Walmart is typically the go-to store for student shoppers, but next time the food supply or other dorm necessities start to run low, think twice about hopping in the car and making the drive to “Wally World.” For the past two semesters, the campus bookstore has been given a makeover that is sure to make the lives of students more convenient when it comes to shopping for certain essentials.
Since the changes to the bookstore began, the store has extended its hours to cover lunchtime and evenings until 9 p.m., and also added several new food and hygiene items as well as new clothing brands.
“We have always carried quality name brand clothing, and now have partnered with Nike to offer more merchandise from their line,” store manager Yvonne Cloud said. “We added a cooler and a freezer to include ice cream bars, frozen dinners, frozen mini pizzas and packaged frozen sandwiches to the menu of items offered. Also offered are some health and dorm items.”
The project to improve the bookstore was started by a student group called Enactus, formerly known as SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise), as an attempt to serve the student body while also getting hands-on business experience.
“Enactus is a group of students who have come together to do some entrepreneurial work to help make other people’s lives better,” Dr. Jim Files, assistant professor of accounting and Enactus advisor, said. “The bookstore is a project that was identified as an area where we thought we could help.”
Enactus began by taking surveys of the student body to see what products students wanted to have most in the bookstore, and then adding as many of these products as possible.
“We’ve been listening to what people want, and one thing that we’ve been adding more of recently has been some medicine items, cold and flu, things like that, that people come in and ask for frequently,” said Jordan Snook, senior business major and student operations manager for the store. “One thing that a lot of people were asking for was Chapstick so we sell a lot of Chapstick now, and we’re working on getting a suggestion box in the store too, so if anybody wants to write anything down, they can.”
The Enactus students leading the bookstore project are not only working within their group to improve the store, they are also working within the store as student managers to staff the new extended hours and get hands-on experience working in a retail setting.
“I felt like this would be a great opportunity for some hands-on experience with management in a retail setting, and so far, I have not been disappointed,” said Jessica Chang, sophomore business major and student merchandising manager for the store. “The student management team is constantly working and changing things in the store to fit our campus needs. Our goal is to make the OBU bookstore a place where a student can get all the necessities needed for the school year.”
Other members of the student management team include data manager Greg Lawrence, senior business major, and marketing manager Tanner Ward, senior business and mass communications major.
In order to make the project as successful as possible, the Enactus students were also able to bring in executives and managers from Walmart, using their expertise and advice on things like how to arrange the store and how to best incorporate new products.
“We have an executive vice president with Walmart, a regional manager with Sam’s Club and the manager of the Hot Springs Sam’s store all coming down here and working shoulder to shoulder with the students to help get things done and even raise funds to help us make the bookstore more productive,” Files said. “These gentlemen are already on the business school’s advisory board and once they were made aware of our project, they came down and actually spent full days working with us, which is very gracious.”
Thanks to the advisors from Walmart and Sam’s, the project picked up speed and has been very successful so far. However, there is still more progress to come in the next couple semesters.
“We keep detailed records on how fast things sell, whether it sells or not, where we need to put it in the store. We are looking to improve on that even more this next fall,” Files said. “We had to do it in baby steps, so we are looking at even more expansion of product in the fall, and sometime during the summer we might do some renovations down there.”
Throughout this project the Enactus students were cooperating and working with the managers and employees already in the book store, Dr. Brett Powell who is over the bookstore, the advisors from the business school and the Office of Financial Services, all to make the campus bookstore the best it can be.
For more information, contact Cloud at cloudy@obu.edu or call the Ouachita Campus Bookstore at (870) 245-5299 or send them an email at bookstore@obu.edu.
