The Campus Store Moves Online

Bluefield University’s physical campus store is going away and moving entirely online.

The campus store transitioned to an online environment this semester and can be found at sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/virginia/bluefield/bluefield-university.

“I think it is ultimately a good thing the store is moving online; I’m just sad to see it go,” said a former store employee. This employee further went on to say that the store went online as it wasn’t selling very much merchandise anymore.

“On any given day, we would maybe sell $10 to $20 worth of stuff,” the former employee said, “and that was mainly students and staff buying snacks.”

The store also had trouble selling merchandise after the Bluefield College to Bluefield University name change last year. This was because most of the store’s inventory had “Bluefield College” printed on it and was thus obsolete. The store tried to sell the “College” merchandise at a 50 percent discount and then later a 75 percent discount, but the merchandise still didn’t sell as hoped, cutting into profits.

The campus store’s previous manager also departed Bluefield University last spring, and her role has been hard to fill. The job of running the store has been transferred to the BU Business Office, and since managing the campus store with its typical duties might be a bit too challenging, the Business Office decided moving the store online would be the best option with the bulk of the work being outsourced to the online vendor.