Thread regarding Follett layoffs

This is a good thing for Follett

I see a lot of people bemoaning Amazon leaving the textbook business as bad for Follett, but @PXtMeih-1ygl explained it perfectly:

You just don't understand. Our industry is different, we are not traditional retail. Follett has managed college bookstores for 100 years. We KNOW how to do it and be profitable. Chegg gone! Amazon gone! Nebraska gone! Competitors came in and priced unrealistically not understanding the textbook industry and related risks. This is what you call an industry shake out. The players that don't know what they are doing lose money and eventually exist the market.

by
| 1171 views | | 2 replies (last October 30, 2017) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+Q08tJjB

2 replies (most recent on top)

If you're claiming there is an opportunity because there is a void, you're right. Colleges and unviersities haven't supported the bookstore, but their faculty need to coordinate with someone to ensure proper materials are available to their students. In those instances a company that can source the materials and reliably make them available is valuable. This may be true in research and science. However, many of the texts used in LIberal Arts majors are in the public domain. There is little value to the faculty or the student to provide those books. The questions becomes how much profit can be driven in the subset of classes where specific materials are critical? Is this enough to justify an expensive business model.

follett already voted with its feet by firing experienced staff. follett pin-head management doesn't think there is enough profit in supplying course materials. If they saw that business as essential, they wouldn't have driven experience from the enterprise.

Yes, there is opportunity. No, follett won't be able to benefit from seizing the opportunity.

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @her+Q08tJjB

What makes you think Amazon is leaving the textbook business? Bought all my son's books thru Amazon. Amazon just quit pay the universities for the privilege of selling books to their students. Follett likes to spent millions on the Ivory Tower so they have synergy interaction between the different floors so they can play big shot (we're better than Google!). Oh you poor folks that are left!

by
| | Reply
Post ID: @cnq+Q08tJjB

Post a reply

: