Barnes and Noble hosted four focus groups Monday night in the UC to ask for student input on their new location.
Emily Conley, of Barnes and Noble corporate, and Mara Burton, manager of the UTM Barnes and Noble, facilitated the meetings.
Students were shown a booklet with designs for two potential floor plans for the bookstore as it makes plans to move downstairs in the UC at the end of the Spring 2014 semester. The bookstore hopes that moving downstairs will allow for more traffic and better accessibility for students.
Students attending the meetings were encouraged to ask questions and offer input on the design and what items the store should carry, such as shirts, magazines and newspapers.
“We are getting special requests for comic books, magazines and national newspapers in the store. If there is something you cannot locate, please ask us and we can special order it for you,” Burton said.
Conley said that student participation was successful.
“There was standing room only in the first meeting. We were impressed with the turnout and participation of the students. We want to get feedback on what the students want the area to look like, “ Conley said.
John Abel, director of the UC, said that it was a good place for students to voice their opinions.
“Student’s voices are definitely heard in this arena,” Abel said.
Several questions were asked at the meeting with regard to tuition increases, whether the game room space would be used and special ordering requests.
“The game room is not being taken away and there will be no increase in tuition for students with this relocation. Since Barnes and Noble is a third party contractor, we shoulder the responsibility for costs,” Conley said.
However, Burton said that the issue of the game room space may depend on the students’ wishes, which is one reason why Barnes and Noble wants as much student input as possible.
“From what I understand Barnes & Noble Bookstore wants to move [downstairs] and use the [old gym] and the game room. From what I know, the game room will not be put anywhere else on campus,” said Geronimo Garcia, a Biology major and student employee at the game room.
“We already get noise complaints, so we can’t move it upstairs; the noise would be monstrous. The game room would basically be gone as soon as [Barnes & Noble] decides to move in,” Garcia said.
“I’ve counted upwards of 50 people in here at any given hour during the day; during the majority of the day any where between 20-70 people can be in here at any given time,” Garcia said.
“One time when we had a Super Smash Brothers tournament, I clocked 78 people in here,” Garcia said.
Three students currently are employed at the game room.
“No one would have a place to just sit, relax and just hang out; [the game room] is not geared toward anything specific, it’s just about cutting loose, relaxing and just letting your mind go blank,” Garcia said.
“It gets loud in [the game room] sometimes. I doubt Barnes & Noble would want their bookstore loud and noisy all the given day,” Garcia said.
That scenario is possible if the game room stays in the UC, and if Barnes and Noble incorporates another of its ideas, which is a “Social Pod” area, which will incorporate seating, electrical outlets and televisions for users.
Students at each of the focus groups were asked for input on seating selection, charging stations, worktables and color schemes and carpet selection for the area. There is a possibility of bringing in a Starbucks outlet for the area as well, once the final plans are drawn up, to lend a “bookstore ambiance” to the area.
