ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Of the 52 years that Flagler College has been in existence, its bookstore has been owned and operated by the same family for nearly 42 of those years, but there won’t be a 43rd.
“We were hopeful that we were going to get the contract, and so we put in an aggressive bid,” said second-generation owner Trevor Smith, who was among 15 vendors the college sent requests for proposal last April.
Smith’s submission was chosen among three finalists including Barnes & Noble, but in the end, it was the large corporation that won.
“We know that we can run a bookstore as well or better than Barnes & Noble,” Smith contended Tuesday.
But Flagler College disagreed.
“We’ve never looked at bidding out the bookstore until about four or five years ago,” Flagler College Vice President David Carson explained. Carson oversees business services and also serves as the institution’s chief financial officer.
“We got to the point where we didn’t have a place for a larger bookstore,” he said, beginning to detail the decision to court a potential replacement entity to run the store. “We decided it was a good time to send out requests for proposals.”
The college received responses from 12 candidates, including Smith. Although his bid made the shortlist, he said the process wasn’t clear, specifically that at the time the college says it rendered a decision in November, he was led to believe he still had a chance.
“There wasn’t much transparency if any,” Smith said. According to his recollection, he received "kind of mixed signals on that."
“We were told that we were very close to the Barnes & Noble’s offer,” he recalled, implying that he wasn’t told that was the end of the process.
Smith said he was caught off-guard with the news much more recently and indirectly.
“I was watching the Super Bowl Sunday, and I got a text saying that there was a petition,” he said.
A petition to keep the bookstore locally owned had been started online – one Carson quickly pointed out was started by a “John Doe” – and had garnered more than 500 signatures by Tuesday night with a stated goal of 1,000.
Carson said the criteria mostly concerned costs and conveniences for students, including markup for new textbooks, used textbooks and rental materials. The college also asked each suitor what investment it would commit toward building out the operation in a larger space.
Also considered were proposed hours of operation and service availability, as well as policies regarding returns. But Carson said Barnes & Noble offered additional enhancements including the availability of online textbooks and a mechanism by which students can know the price of required textbooks when they choose courses and build their schedules. He conceded that Smith might have been able to offer those and other similar services.
“It wasn’t in the proposal, but I won’t say he couldn’t have offered it,” Carson said.
Carol Branson, vice president of marketing and communications at Flagler College, said with Barnes & Noble at the helm, “There is greater access to rented books and borrowed used books.”
“Because Barnes & Noble manages their own distribution center,” she said, “they have access to a large number of those, so our students don’t necessarily have to buy a new book.”
That benefit – whether available through Smith or other bidders – appealed to sophomore Gabriel San Miguel, who said he’s been delayed getting books at times because of limited inventory.
“Sometimes they’re not available or [the store] quickly runs out of the books because they don’t get enough books for everyone,” he said. “This semester I had to order most of my books online,” which he said placed him at a disadvantage.
“I was a week behind, basically,” he said.
That said, San Miguel acknowledged with an apparent tinge of regret that “big corporations tend to do that, they take over family-owned businesses. I’m not in favor of it but if it benefits us, it’s better for everyone.”
Freshman Hannah Arieti defended the outgoing owner, saying the change belies Flagler College’s tradition of prioritizing local business relationships.
“I feel like it is kind of unfair, being that the town of St. Augustine is so locally centered,” she said. “I’ve heard the prices are going to be better, but at the same time the prices were higher and you’re supporting a family. So it kind of goes both ways.”
Branson and Carson both assured that the college still maintains the "keep it local" ethic, which is why it labored about the decision for as long as it did.
“We value our community partnerships and we have several, many partnerships across the St. Augustine and St. Johns County, up into Jacksonville,” Branson maintained. “Sometimes we have to go outside of the local area to keep costs low and to enhance the student experience. And so that’s ultimately why this decision was made.”
Carson specifically asserted that it would have been unethical and perilous to future trust in future bidding competition if the college had extended Smith any unique final right of match or refusal.
But Smith said he would have liked that chance.
“I told the powers that be that I was available for discussing that, I could match Barnes & Noble if that’s the case,” Smith said. Asked whether the administration sought that availability, he said no, and at least he would have liked to know what he was up against.
“How much would you like at least a chance to see what they’re being offered?” I asked him.
“I think that’d be great, I’d like that opportunity,” he said.
Smith said he has to vacate the property by Feb. 29. The college said Barnes & Noble will likely be up and running there by the fourth week of March.