Many personal items, including food and toiletries, are no longer sold in the campus store.
The university operated the bookstore in previous academic years. Tree of Life leased the space in June 2015.
The company pays the university rent and gives them a commission on sales.
“The transition gave us an opportunity to look at the products we were selling, and the price point, and look at what students really need,” Bookstore Manager Christina Chapman said. “We looked at the budget and said ‘OK, at what point does it become less cost efficient to have these items here?’”
Some of the items that were sold, such as toothpaste and food, were marked down when it got close to their expiration dates. The bookstore took losses on those items, Chapman said.
Food sales were stopped because Alvin’s and the caf offered more food items.
“Personal items weren’t very popular,” Chapman said. “Sales varied, depending on the time of the year.
“At the beginning of the year, students would buy things that they had forgotten at home, then sales would pick back up at the end of the year when students started losing those types of items again. It wasn’t consistent enough to justify keeping it in the store. Items with no expiration date, like hairbrushes and bobby pins, were in stock for years.
Medicine, a more popular item, was discontinued to avoid competition with the Campus Health Center, Chapman said.
All items left over after the transition were boxed up and donated to the health center and Oklahoma United Methodist Hall.
It’s not completely out of the picture to bring these types of items back, Chapman said.
“I’m open to any suggestions as long as I can find the products and it’s something more than one person is asking for,” she said. “It has to be what we agree is an affordable price. I don’t want to bring in a little thing of toothpaste and sell it for $3 because it’s not fair to students to put a product out there with an unreasonable price.”
Barrett Cahalen, dance freshman, said he is interested in bringing back personal items to the store, but showed a similar concern about price.
“It would save us the trip to a store somewhere else,” he said. “However, if it’s over priced, like most things on this campus, then there would be no point.”
Chapman said she invites students to talk to her about items they’d like to see or bring back, either by visiting the store or by emailing clchapman@okcu.edu.
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