Sonda and Jon recently visited Cassie Wherry at the Pioneer Bookshop serving Grinnell College. The store is on the main street in the city of Grinnell and thus, is a bit off-campus which creates both opportunities and some challenges. There’s plenty of fun merchandise and thoughtful merchandising everywhere you look—Cassie and her team are focused [...]
Marcy and Jon were in the San Diego area and stopped by to visit Sandie Sears and her team at the UC San Diego Bookstore. Great examples of excellent visual merchandising could be found throughout the store. And the broad product assortment ranged beyond traditional college store items to include everything from Pop Sockets to [...]
Jon Bibo attended the Global Retailing Conference (GRC) in Tucson, AZ, for the 5th consecutive year and shares his thoughts on this exciting conference that addresses hot topics and the latest strategies in the world of retail. The GRC is one of my favorite and most thought-provoking Conferences each year. The GRC coordinates [...]
Jon Bibo represented ICBA at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Jon shares his observations on what's up and coming in technology, and how college stores can benefit. CES 2019 marked my 28th consecutive year attending this “little” get-together of technology, electronics, lifestyle, innovation, deal-making, and semi-controlled chaos. [...]
Jon Bibo represented ICBA at the Shop.Org Conference earlier this month. Here are Jon's observations regarding what was most relevant and what it may mean for independent college stores. This is my 4th time attending the Shop.Org Conference and it’s one of the more exciting shows I attend each year. First of all, [...]
