2008 Woodie Awards
New bookstore brews fresh start
Facility offers new and expanded services
Jessica Hughes and Dane Schumann
Issue date: 8/22/05 Section: News
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At the beginning of August Kirkwood opened a new bookstore located in Benton Hall. Klieman Construction started the project in July 2004. The company estimated it would take 12 months to finish the project but it ran into an old cooler foundation problem, which pushed the finishing date back 30 days from the original July 1 deadline.
The new bookstore has 20,000 square feet for books, warehouse, merchandise and a coffee/snack shop. The third floor has 10,000 square feet for eight new classrooms and is connected directly to Cedar Hall. The old store had a total square footage of about 5,500.
Tom Kaldenberg, director of facilities management, said a couple hundred people worked on the new store. The cost of the facility was $4,541,504, which was paid for with revenues that were generated from the old store.
The bookstore offers two floors of service. On the first floor Kirkwood merchandise such as clothing, bags and cups are available for purchase. The second floor is filled with shelves of textbooks that students need for classes. Kirkwood has eased the frustration of searching for books by hanging signs from the ceiling with the names of each department. The 10,000 square feet allow for wider aisles as well. This makes it easier for students to get their books during busy hours. A new apartment living section on the north side of the floor contains merchandise that students may find handy. Roughly half of the part-time employees are Kirkwood students. The bookstore also has 11 registers where students can buy their books, a considerable improvement from the last bookstore. Seven of them are allocated to students using financial aid while the other four are for students paying with cash, check or credit card. "Having the bookstore set up that way really speeds up the process for students during these busy times," said Director of Auxiliary Services Ryan Gardner.
Across from the bookstore is a convenience store that service's Starbucks coffee and a variety of Freshens smoothies. The convenience store is known as a C-store as it follows the concept of a convenience store. "A C-store is a popular trend that many colleges and universities have implemented," said Gardner. The C-store provides subs and salads from Sammy's Café along with water, soda, candy and other snacks. Culinary Arts students will supply freshly baked goods through their program beginning this week.
The new facility also houses an EagleCard station where students can have an EagleCard issued to them and put credit on it. The Rec Center is the other on-campus station.
The bookstore is open from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday. The convenience store is open 7 a.m-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday.