College store director Sarah Emerson Potter \u201977 has a unique acquaintance with Bates, thanks to both her role overseeing one of the most\u2013visited places on campus and her long history here. Potter started at the store when, dropping in for a pad of paper, she accepted the manager\u2019s offer of a temporary position as text buyer. That was in 1980.<\/p>\n
Q:<\/span> What\u2019s the store\u2019s mission?<\/strong> Q:<\/span> How do sales break down by category?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong><\/span> Textbooks are the biggest seller. I would guess that 60 percent of our sales are texts, clothing maybe 20 percent, things with the Bates imprint are 10 to 15 percent. If general books are 5 percent, I\u2019d be surprised. I\u2019d love to have us be more of a bookstore.<\/p>\n Q:<\/span> What\u2019s the textbook pricing policy?<\/strong> Q:<\/span> What\u2019s the most popular item?<\/strong> Q:<\/span> How do your own tastes inform what\u2019s in the store?<\/strong> Q:<\/span> That must be a great feeling.<\/strong> Q:<\/span> When did you start the summer \u201cNon-Required Reading List\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong><\/span> 2004 was our eighth year. At first we put out about 40, and now we do 350 copies. Contributors have doubled, and people look forward to it\u2014I live for it. Sawyer Sylvester [professor of sociology] always sends the best list. His choices run the gamut: a book on fingerprinting, Harry Potter, mysteries, a book on the color mauve. It’s like getting a gift.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong><\/span> Course materials for students at the lowest possible cost. But, of course, we are a marketing arm of the institution, we\u2019re a gathering place, we\u2019re a social wheel. We listen to alumni stories, talk with concerned parents, share the institution’s strengths with prospective parents and students.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong><\/span> The textbook business operates at a loss, because the profit margin is fairly low. We aim for the highest percentage of used books that we can, because that\u2019s the student\u2019s best value. Clothing margins are among the highest, to account for the losses in textbooks.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong><\/span> Hooded sweatshirts. It’s funny\u2014when I started buying, you couldn\u2019t give a hooded sweatshirt away. Those gray crewneck sweatshirts with \u201cBates\u201d across the front in maroon, we sold them by the boatload. Now it\u2019s completely flip\u2013flopped, and hoodies outsell crewnecks two or three to one.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong><\/span> I order all the clothing, so if there\u2019s a design that doesn\u2019t seem like it would work at Bates, that\u2019s probably a reflection of my taste. I can go to a football game and look out at the sea of people and what they\u2019re wearing, and realize that I ordered all of it.<\/p>\n
\nA:<\/strong><\/span> Well, it is and it isn\u2019t, because some things look so awful that it\u2019s like, “What was I thinking?” One year we ordered a shorts\u2013and\u2013tops set that looked like it had come from some bad Hawaiian fabric shop. It was just the grossest combo plate. The vendors told us they were being sold everywhere\u2014I\u2019d be surprised if we sold one. So we ended up putting them out as an \u201coops\u201d sale, as we called it back then.<\/p>\n