The Cornell Store

Building Description

The Cornell Store serves Cornell's students faculty, staff, alumni and visitors by providing a specialized selection of products and services. We will consistently deliver:"legendary service" to our customers; a rewarding work experience to our coworkers; and outstanding fiscal performance to the University. The Cornell Store is fully owned by Cornell University and proceeds support the university.

History

The origins of The Cornell Store began in 1895 when a group of students formed the Cornell Cooperative Society. The purpose was to provide better selection, service and prices than those provided at the time by local merchants. The organization was a student-faculty cooperative and was housed in the basement of Morrill Hall. The Co-op prospered in its endeavors and even operated its own printing plant. It expanded in Morrill Hall, but by 1925 it needed to move to a larger space in Barnes Hall.
In Barnes Hall the store had a number of unanticipated challenges. The new location, having three times the total space, challenged the management to use the additional space creatively. Besides the management and display problems, the Co-op also ran into increased competition, since many people began to patronize the newly built Willard Straight Hall and the University Purchasing Department.
After World War II the Society became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cornell. In April 1952, the name of the organization was changed to The Campus Store. In 1954, the Co-op remodeled Barnes Hall occupying the first floor in addition to the basement. But this was also quickly filled and within ten years, the store was considering plans for the construction of a new store.
The end of the 1960's saw the construction of a new store building designed by architects Earl R. Flansburgh & Associates of Cambridge, Mass, which is the store's current site. In January of 1969 "Progressive Architecture" selected the Campus Store at Cornell for one of the 16 Annual Design Awards.
In the 1980s there were a series of renovations and innovations designed to make the store more efficient. Improvements included connecting four separate sales spaces into one contiguous shopping area and changing processes for semester-opening sales. This reduced the wait time in line from approximately one hour (example from 1975) to four minutes. Other innovations included additions to the product line (computer hardware and software and custom published course packets) and adding online services through Bear Access and the store web site.
The Cornell Store is a founding member of the Retail Alliance, an innovative consortium that negotiates for better terms from suppliers and even was able to buy its own systems provider. In 2001, to better identify the store to the increased number of distant customers, the name was changed to The Cornell Store. The Cornell Store currently operates one satellite location in the Statler Hotel and in Sage Hall.