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Labyrinth Pop-Up Bookstore
By Masha Rumer
The Graduate Center holds many resources, but an in-house bookstore is not one of them. In fact, until last semester, there was no bookstore of any sort at all.
How did the students manage without one? For me, getting hold of the right books involved tedious journeys through Manhattan’s bookstores and libraries (with an occasional detour to Brighton Beach for materials in Russian). Then I’d come home to find the “Sorry we missed you!” delivery notices for internet orders flapping in the wind on my door. Fed up with it all, I often resolved to just stick with reserve library texts, getting my hands on them somehow in-between classes, teaching, an office job, and before that anonymous “other” reader who always gets the materials seconds before you do. By the end of my first year in graduate school, I developed a nostalgic longing for my alma mater’s bookstore—the lines of crisp overpriced titles, the spirited teddy bears, the shorts with embroideries on the back, the Bob Marley and Matisse posters…
Last fall, a pop-up bookstore pitched its shelves at the Graduate Center for the first time. The store is a branch of Labyrinth Books on 112th and Broadway, which supplies textbooks to uptown schools like Columbia, Teacher’s College, Barnard, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. At first, there was skepticism. How can something “pop-up” meet the readership demands of over 4,000 students and 31 disciplines? Yet the bookstore, on a four-semester contract, has proven to be an asset to students, professors, and the university. Located in the anteroom of the Dining Commons on the 8th floor, it was open from 11 am to 7 pm on weekdays, January 16 through February 29. It packed up thereafter, but will possibly return for a short sale as it did last semester. As Associate Provost Stephen Brier, who negotiated the contract, puts it: “It’s ‘pop-up’ because it pops up and then it goes away.”
The impermanence aside, the materials are finally no further than an elevator ride away from your classrooms and library. With the neat rows of shelves and textbooks, this well-lit space contains titles for nearly one hundred and forty courses offered this semester. “Most of the things we supply here are ordered by the professors for courses,” says an employee, Brian Campbell, who is also a student at the School of Visual Arts. “The ‘good teachers’ ordered in advance—at the end of last semester,” he says. “But the lazier ones are still coming up with new books.” You can also find faculty publications here, like works by Stanley Aronowitz, Andre Aciman, and David Harvey; new releases; popular fiction; and even a few bits of merchandize with the CUNY logo.
What’s in it for students? Convenience and savings. The store does not charge sales tax or mark up its merchandize. And there is no shipping fee. Paula Gormley, a Criminal Justice student from John Jay, bought textbooks for a Psychometrics course she is auditing at the Graduate Center. “It’s great. It makes it convenient and easy to find books.” Sophie Marinez from the French program is buying books here for the first time. “I found everything I needed for one class. My French books take forever to get here, so I order them online.”
You won’t necessarily find materials for every class in the pop-up store. Yet traffic has increased from last semester. The store manager, David Patterson, explains while multitasking on the computer and register and talking to a publisher on the phone: “It’s been very successful. The space is fantastic. There is plenty of room for everything. We encourage professors to order through us.”
Instructors can place orders by putting in a request via phone, email, fax, or the Labyrinth website. The order comes with incentives: every participating instructor gets a 15% discount card to Labyrinth, which is good for half a year. And there is always the convenience of browsing the assigned materials for other courses, useful both to students and to professors and their colleagues.
The Graduate Center, too, stands to gain in benefits hoped to eventually “trickle down” to students. Seven percent of all the proceeds go to the Mina Rees Library, which totaled $5,800 last semester. Next year the figure will grow to ten percent. “The money is used to purchase more books, to hire more staff, and to keep the library open for longer hours,” explains Dr. Brier. “Labyrinth doesn’t pay us rent; we get no other revenue. It’s an organic part of what we are doing here.” The renewal of the shop’s contract depends on its success this semester and next year.
Though the pop-up bookstore lacks the permanence of a hefty college store and the caffeinated beverages of Barnes & Noble, it eases stress for both the students and the faculty, is money-savvy, and brings the diverse Graduate Center community closer together. “And there’s always good indie rock music playing,” adds Brian. With all these factors placed into one shopping bag, the store offers a pretty good deal.Masha Rumer is a student in the Comparative Literature department.
