Bookstore on the move

By Robert Carver

The Loyola campus bookstore is moving from Hingston Hall into the Drummond Science Building.

“We’ve done it before, where we’ve moved four locations over the course of one summer,” explained bookstore manager Lina Lipscombe, recalling the 1992 move into the SGW library building and Hingston Hall.

“We consider those to be major moves. We consider this to be just a little bump.”

The store staff are set to move everything over a weekend in the upcoming weeks.

Contractors are working on the space right now, and it is expected they will have shelving and the necessary “slat” walls installed ahead of schedule.

“As of right now, things seem to be moving along,” Lipscombe said. “So as long as that happens, then the physical move itself will not take us long at all.”

Instead of using a contracted moving company, the bookstore staff will load and unload everything themselves using Concordia vehicles. They’re hoping for a nearly seamless transition.

There was concern earlier this year that the move might have to be postponed. The space was originally supposed to be ready the third week of August, when the bookstore is usually deep in preparations for the back-to-school rush.

Adding to the sense of urgency is an arrangement with Dorval’s Queen of Angels Academy. In addition to meeting the needs of Concordia students, the Loyola bookstore has been providing the private school with its textbooks for about 15 years, and its students tend to start their book shopping a little bit earlier.

“We want to be all set up by the time September starts,” explains Lipscombe. “I thought that if we couldn’t get in by the beginning of August then we would not move until after the September rush.”

With the added space in the Drummond building, the bookstore will be able to broaden its line of products. The new room will bring with it retail space for computers, software, peripherals, greeting cards, magazines and, of course, Concordia branded merchandise.

“It’s good for the community. We’re really looking forward to it, because they just haven’t been able to take full advantage of the services we provide.”

It looks like all that experience is finally starting to pay off.