Pizarro: Barnes & Noble taking over SJSU bookstore
Originally published in the San Jose Mercury News April 7, 2011
By Sal Pizarro
I’ve been complaining for years about the lack of a mainstream bookstore in downtown San Jose, and it looks like my wish is finally being granted. Well, sort of. Spartan Shops, a nonprofit arm of San Jose State, has reached a 10-year agreement with Barnes & Noble to operate the campus bookstore in the student union, starting later this month.
San Jose State is the 13th CSU campus to outsource its bookstore operation and the sixth to go with Barnes & Noble. The bookselling giant plans to pour some money into building a new bookstore as part of the student union expansion and renovation project due to be completed in the fall of 2013.
By then we’ll probably all be using e-readers. But don’t worry, they’ll sell those, too.