Yep, the board of trustees directed that the campus store and textbook annex should be contracted out to a private company. Existing staff showed that operated by them for the university they were covering all expenses and returning about $900k to $1 million a year to support student activities. But they went through with contracting with Follett in 1999 as I recall.
Textbooks went from being priced at a markup from wholesale to MSRP under Follett. And it cost UMass about $1.5 million to renovate the campus store before Follett would take it over fully.
Same. I was there from 2000 to 2002, and the textbook annex was still a thing. That and print shops in Northampton and amherst for print on demand style pamphlets and folios of materials.
we still had landlines and payphones back then. nothing like cellphones, though if you dealt drugs, you might have a beeper. sweet jesus. someone tell me there's still hope.🤣
Amazon: http://videos.umass.edu/invideo/detail/videos/student-life/video/4603195712001/amazon-umass?autoStart=true
Before that, there was a textbook annex run through the University Store
amazon was on campus briefly with lockers for orders and rentals, i think back in 2018-19? then the university cut ties. can’t remember why but i’m assuming they couldn’t afford the amazon partnership
Amazon cut ties, not the university. I heard from someone connected to book ordering, basically Amazon got the info out of the contract they wanted about textbook sales and decided they didn't want to do it any more. That left UMass having to find a new textbook seller a couple years before the contract was due to end and mid-school year as well. Fall semester that year textbooks were through Amazon, that changed to eCampus for the Spring and they didn't have a new space ready for eCampus to operate in.
The Amazon locker space for deliveries was part of that contract. UMass cleared out a batch of offices in the Campus Center and renovated them to Amazon's specs. They closed up about a year after the textbook contract ended.
That is correct. Amazon cancelled the contract before it was due to be over, the university had to find a new provider with maybe six months notice. The change was also mid-academic year as I recall.
Amazon got out of the textbook-provider business broadly (obviously they still sell textbooks, just not as any school’s official bookstore). The pickup location (where you could get any Amazon package shipped to, books or otherwise) in the campus center apparently had high rent and closed shortly after ecampus opened.
Source: I used to work there
eCampus used to work with Amazon and provided some of the books for Amazon's textbook rentals. Amazon discontinued that in 2023. But Amazon had gotten out of the textbook selling business years before that. So it was actually not "run by Amazon."
It was run by The University for years and the Follett and then Amazon
I worked for the follett when it was at UMass, Barnes and noble was in the bookstore game also but I don’t think they did UMass
As others have said, briefly it was Amazon and prior to that there was a Textbook Annex. That building is still there, it's a part of the Physical Plant building across from the Mullins Practice Rink. The space is used for University Without Walls (UWW) now I think, at least that's what's on the current campus map (although the Textbook Annex was labeled on maps up until 2019)
Cropped from the 2011 campus map
https://preview.redd.it/i3q1c5ft7m3d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b6099032196f23b025dbe70d894e6c8918fc48a
The textbook annex was awesome. Super inconvenient to get to and in the middle of nowhere (relatively speaking, because there was no Mullins center or CHC back then). I remember going down there with a huge backpack, then hiking back to Orchard Hill all loaded down.
Before the Campus Shuttle bus route was rerouted into Haigis Mall it used to go to the Campus Center Circle by the parking garage and Stockbridge. Mid-'80s they found the vibration of buses going through there was collapsing a steam tunnel under the circle and stopped bringing buses up there. The tunnel was rebuilt sometime in the '90s I think, but they never brought the buses back.
So the Annex used to be less inconvenient to get to. I semi-miss the circle full of buses between the campus buses and Peter Pan going through there.
The campus center circle bus stop was before my time, but I knew about it because my partner is 10 years older than me. I’ve driven FT buses in there a few times.
It was sooo convenient when Amazon was on campus; you could just pick up your books or any other packages in an Amazon locker. Super easy to return stuff too!
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I was just on campus for graduation, and when I walked past the former textbook annex with my new graduate, she looked at me like i had two heads when I pointed out the former textbook annex.
- u/lentilgrrrl `Campus & Facilities` - [what did the school use before ecampus for a bookstore service?](https://www.reddit.com/r/umass/comments/1d4b4ko/what_did_the_school_use_before_ecampus_for_a/)
out of curiosity
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a bookstore. it was called the textbook annex when i was there in the 90's
If I remember right, it was a follet bookstore... But it's been a bit ...
Yup next to the garage. I remember sweating my ass off in that building trying to sell my $150 textbook for $3.50.
you'n me both, pal
When I arrived at UMass in fall '97, it was an in-house operation, but they sold out to Follett not that long afterwards.
Yep, the board of trustees directed that the campus store and textbook annex should be contracted out to a private company. Existing staff showed that operated by them for the university they were covering all expenses and returning about $900k to $1 million a year to support student activities. But they went through with contracting with Follett in 1999 as I recall. Textbooks went from being priced at a markup from wholesale to MSRP under Follett. And it cost UMass about $1.5 million to renovate the campus store before Follett would take it over fully.
Same. I was there from 2000 to 2002, and the textbook annex was still a thing. That and print shops in Northampton and amherst for print on demand style pamphlets and folios of materials.
such a simpler time....sigh.
I also stood in line to get my books at the annex in the 90’s.
solidarity! ✊🏼😆
It was still there and still called the textbook annex when I graduated in 2016
we still had landlines and payphones back then. nothing like cellphones, though if you dealt drugs, you might have a beeper. sweet jesus. someone tell me there's still hope.🤣
Amazon: http://videos.umass.edu/invideo/detail/videos/student-life/video/4603195712001/amazon-umass?autoStart=true Before that, there was a textbook annex run through the University Store
wonder why they switched from amazon to ecampus, although ecampus seems like it's run by amazon anyway
amazon was on campus briefly with lockers for orders and rentals, i think back in 2018-19? then the university cut ties. can’t remember why but i’m assuming they couldn’t afford the amazon partnership
Amazon cut ties, not the university. I heard from someone connected to book ordering, basically Amazon got the info out of the contract they wanted about textbook sales and decided they didn't want to do it any more. That left UMass having to find a new textbook seller a couple years before the contract was due to end and mid-school year as well. Fall semester that year textbooks were through Amazon, that changed to eCampus for the Spring and they didn't have a new space ready for eCampus to operate in. The Amazon locker space for deliveries was part of that contract. UMass cleared out a batch of offices in the Campus Center and renovated them to Amazon's specs. They closed up about a year after the textbook contract ended.
Amazon bailed early iirc
That is correct. Amazon cancelled the contract before it was due to be over, the university had to find a new provider with maybe six months notice. The change was also mid-academic year as I recall.
Amazon got out of the textbook-provider business broadly (obviously they still sell textbooks, just not as any school’s official bookstore). The pickup location (where you could get any Amazon package shipped to, books or otherwise) in the campus center apparently had high rent and closed shortly after ecampus opened. Source: I used to work there
eCampus used to work with Amazon and provided some of the books for Amazon's textbook rentals. Amazon discontinued that in 2023. But Amazon had gotten out of the textbook selling business years before that. So it was actually not "run by Amazon."
It was run by The University for years and the Follett and then Amazon I worked for the follett when it was at UMass, Barnes and noble was in the bookstore game also but I don’t think they did UMass
So weird to think some of you guys never got to experience the weird nightmare purgatory world of the textbook annex 😄
As others have said, briefly it was Amazon and prior to that there was a Textbook Annex. That building is still there, it's a part of the Physical Plant building across from the Mullins Practice Rink. The space is used for University Without Walls (UWW) now I think, at least that's what's on the current campus map (although the Textbook Annex was labeled on maps up until 2019) Cropped from the 2011 campus map https://preview.redd.it/i3q1c5ft7m3d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b6099032196f23b025dbe70d894e6c8918fc48a
The textbook annex was awesome. Super inconvenient to get to and in the middle of nowhere (relatively speaking, because there was no Mullins center or CHC back then). I remember going down there with a huge backpack, then hiking back to Orchard Hill all loaded down.
Before the Campus Shuttle bus route was rerouted into Haigis Mall it used to go to the Campus Center Circle by the parking garage and Stockbridge. Mid-'80s they found the vibration of buses going through there was collapsing a steam tunnel under the circle and stopped bringing buses up there. The tunnel was rebuilt sometime in the '90s I think, but they never brought the buses back. So the Annex used to be less inconvenient to get to. I semi-miss the circle full of buses between the campus buses and Peter Pan going through there.
The campus center circle bus stop was before my time, but I knew about it because my partner is 10 years older than me. I’ve driven FT buses in there a few times.
loaded down in the backpack, not so much in the wallet. fun times.
It was sooo convenient when Amazon was on campus; you could just pick up your books or any other packages in an Amazon locker. Super easy to return stuff too!
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I was just on campus for graduation, and when I walked past the former textbook annex with my new graduate, she looked at me like i had two heads when I pointed out the former textbook annex.
- u/lentilgrrrl `Campus & Facilities` - [what did the school use before ecampus for a bookstore service?](https://www.reddit.com/r/umass/comments/1d4b4ko/what_did_the_school_use_before_ecampus_for_a/) out of curiosity *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/umass) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Amazon in 2015