U. Bookstore opens for business

The new Barnes & Noble-operated University Bookstore in Sansom Common offers students more than just books. After years of planning and construction, the Barnes & Noble-operated University Bookstore in Sansom Common opened yesterday with little fanfare but high expectations. As planned, the two-floor superstore is the first venue to be completed in the $73 million Sansom Common hotel and retail complex. Taking up more than 50,000 square feet, the new Bookstore is 60 percent larger and offers more products and services than the old University Bookstore at the corner of 38th Street and Locust Walk, which closed on July 10 in anticipation of yesterday's grand opening. The Bookstore's old home -- along with the adjacent University Plaza shops on the 3700 block of Walnut Street -- is set to be demolished to make way for a new Wharton School facility. Bookstore General Manager Dwayne Carter emphasized that yesterday's inaugural day was only a "soft opening" for the establishment. "We wanted to get the new store open as soon as possible given that we closed the old store," he said. "We still have some rough edges construction-wise." Carter added that only 110,000 to 115,000 of the store's anticipated 130,000 volumes are in stock, though he said "books are arriving every day." The new Bookstore resembles its predecessor in name only. In addition to the usual supply of textbooks and academic necessities, the store features a cafZ, which serves Starbuck's coffee; more posters and framed prints; and an expanded clothing selection -- featuring both Penn-insignia garments and designer apparel from Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Also new to the Bookstore is a second-floor music section. While Carter said that the 10,000 compact disks in stock were particularly strong in jazz, classical and international music, mainstays from Sinatra to the Spice Girls are also available. "We're not trying to be a music store," he said. "We just try to offer music to a student who wants a CD from time to time." Additionally, the Penn-owned Computer Connection has followed its Bookstore neighbor to Sansom Common, occupying a spacious 3,000-square-foot area on the store's ground level. But it is in its book displays that the new Bookstore distinguishes itself as a unique blend of the academic and the commercial. While the textbook section sits nearly empty in anticipation of the fall book rush, other areas of the store feature books by Penn faculty and publications of the University of Pennsylvania Press. And, in a change from the normal academic setting of a college bookstore, best-sellers with Barnes & Noble price stickers sit prominently near the store's front entrance. But Carter, who last managed the B&N; College Bookstore at Boston University, said that Penn's Bookstore is not another link in the B&N; chain. "This is not a Barnes & Noble bookstore," he said. "This is Penn's bookstore. We're just given the privilege to operate it on behalf of the University." Marie Witt, the University official overseeing the Bookstore's operations, said that Penn will receive a commission on the store's sales, but declined to discuss specific arrangements. Carter expressed his hope that the establishment would cater to more than just Penn's student body. Through planned book readings and projects with local schools, Carter said he hopes to make "the Bookstore an integral part of the West Philadelphia community." Four other stores -- Xando's coffeehouse, Urban Outfitters, City Sports and Parfumerie Douglas Cosmetics are expected to open in Sansom Common in late August, while the 250-room Inn at Penn is slated to open its doors in the fall of 1999.