The Nevada Sagebrush

The Associated Students of the University of Nevada Bookstore will seek to increase its competitiveness by offering new products in the Pack Pit Stop, said Marie Stewart, manager of the store. Tony Contini/Nevada Sagebrush

The campus bookstore will begin to refurbish its image this semester in part of a years-long process to compete in a changing marketplace.

The Associated Students of the University of Nevada Bookstore will renovate its convenience store, the Pack Pit Stop, as an initial phase of the project, bookstore director Marie Stewart said. The bookstore will also change its name, establish a website that compares book prices in the area and look to provide a variety of new products such as locally grown foods and sporting equipment.

“We’re truly not just a bookstore anymore,” Stewart said. “And a lot of students don’t know that. We’re the campus store.”

The Pack Pit Stop will get a silver and blue paint job and better-sized product racks during the next three months, Stewart said. Stewart hopes the changes give the store a less cluttered and more visually balanced atmosphere, she said.

But the biggest change to the convenience store, located on the first floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union, will be the products it carries. The bookstore plans to team up with the Great Basin

Community Food Co-op to provide the campus with healthy and locally grown food alternatives, Stewart said.

“We won’t have 50 kinds of chips,” she said. “This will be something that no one is giving on campus.”

Justin Zabriskie, a University of Nevada, Reno international relations major and a volunteer at the food co-op, said he’s acting as facilitator between the bookstore and the co-op. He said he hopes to connect local and and national distributors of environmentally conscious food products.

“A lot of the food corporations think a lot less about our well being as humans,” said Zabriskie, founder of the environment-awareness campus club known as Health.  “We just want students to be comfortable with the food they eat.”

Demand for locally grown foods are increasing at UNR and in Reno, said John Sagebiel, UNR’s environmental health and safety manager. Customer demand for healthy products is changing the market, he said. Products containing BPA, a compound used in plastic that is thought to have adverse health effects, are being increasingly replaced with BPA-free products because of rising customer demand for healthier products, he said.

Buying locally is a way of reinvesting in the community, said Sagebiel, who serves on the Facilities Resources Committee that recently approved the changes to the Pack Pit Stop. Stewart said she hopes changes to the bookstore will lead to more student investment in UNR and Reno.

In 2010, the ASUN Bookstore gave back $350,000 to the student government. Student purchases at the store ultimately come back to students, Stewart said.

The store will create a website that will allow students to seek textbook prices and compare them with other online and local options, Stewart said. Some sporting goods will also become available in the Pack Pit Stop to complement the nearby Lombardi Recreation Center, she said.

The changes to the ASUN Bookstore are not unique to UNR. Campus stores across the country are revamping their stores, according to a report issued in 2010 by the National Association of College Stores. The report suggests spacious retail centers with “campus markets,” as well as cafés and gathering spaces. Stewart said changes to UNR’s store will reflect a “Trader Joe’s concept.”

Don Weinland can be reached at dweinland@nevadasagebrush.com.

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