Redesign UC Davis bookstore - Essay Example

Background The UC Davis Bookstore is conveniently located at the heart of the Memorial Union. Product offerings include textbooks, school supplies, art supplies, and electronics. Prices are slightly higher than average market prices. Most books sell at list price and most art supplies sell slightly below list price. Most students purchase from the bookstore because the convenience outweighs the price premium. One of the reasons the bookstore does not perform as well as it could is because of ownership issues that started when the Executive Committee of ASUCD, who owned and managed the bookstore until 1966, voted to relinquish operations of the bookstore to the campus administration.

The university soon took control of the UCD Davis bookstore and established itself as its legitimate owner over time. After a period of time ASUCD tried to regain control of the bookstore. It culminated when; in 1982 ASUCD sued the UC Regents for one million dollars in lost profits and for control of the bookstore. The university did not respond well and even threatened to kick ASUCD off campus and to revoke ASUCD owned Unitrans’ – the primary bus service within the campus – insurance. Eventually, ASUCD dropped its lawsuit and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to relinquish all control of the bookstore; in return, ASUCD receives $20,000 a year from the bookstore’s revenue to use on the Memorial Union.

The university’s ownership of the bookstore is strong and will continue to hold for the years to come. Another reason that it does not perform to it full potential and the subsequent need to redesign the space is the fact that the UC Davis Bookstore sells more than just books. The range of products available inside the store makes it more like a one-stop shop for students needs. If the space is cluttered or disorganized, the flow of goods and people within the store will also suffer. As such, a reorganization of product offerings is essential to any retail space with this range of choices.

In particular, the redesign will focus on improving the flow of people and goods in and out of the store as well as within the store itself. Incidentally, the authors of this proposal have not found documented attempts to solve this particular issue, making this redesign project even more important and timely.