‘Wow, this looks different,’ will be the first thing many returning students say when they enter the University of Arizona Campus Store this fall.

The Campus Store, known as the UA Bookstore for more than 20 years, underwent a huge transformation over the summer. It is now open for students to view the renovations and shop the product expansions.

“We wanted to really represent and scream ‘university’ without saying ‘university’ right when you walk in,” said Executive Director of University Campus Stores Peter Neff. “We also wanted to make sure it was more inviting and inclusive, so students could spend more time here if they wanted.”

Neff has held an executive position at the store for the past two and a half years. He says when he first took the job, his team did a marketing study that found that UA students no longer connected with the bookstore and instead found it out of fashion.

“They felt it was their grandparents’ store, that our products were dated; they wanted something more than red, white and blue,” Neff said.

This renovation changed exactly that.

Neff said the Campus Store name change better suits the entity as a whole. He said the bookstore’s name seemed to steer students away rather than bring them in to see all of the products the store has to offer.

The store now exhibits more dark blue walls spelling ‘hello’ in different languages, brighter lighting, open spaces with chairs to lounge on and expanded tech areas. According to Neff, products are also from top brands, such as Nike, Lululemon, Champion and Hype and Vice.

“We even took our core T-shirts, which students come to expect that have different slogans on them and found a better distributor with better quality, so that we could make sure it was just something that was overall a better experience,” Neff said.

The executive director said the response from parents, incoming freshmen and returning students has been overwhelmingly positive.

“They have been ecstatic beyond even our wildest dreams,” Neff said. “I heard earlier today a daughter asking her mother, ‘Is this what it looked like when you came here?’ And she was saying, ‘Absolutely not.’”

Iyanna Robinson, a student worker who has been at the store for about five months, said she has loved coming back this semester to see the new changes.

“It feels more open, if that makes any sense,” Robinson said. “I love the new chairs too. I feel like now people can chill, shop and do whatever else if they want to.”

Neff said one of the features he’s most proud of in the store is the wall near the checkout area displaying flags representing Arizona’s 22 tribal nations. He said he worked closely with indigenous communities on campus to ensure how to best honor the tribes.

“I think for us it’s a simple reminder to everyone who sees it, especially if it’s one of your nations up there, that this is a part of who you are,” said Senior Vice President for Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement N. Levi Esquerra. “I’ve taken people in there from different native nations or those tribes and when they see it, they’ve just got goosebumps.”

According to Esquerra, the display is beyond what he imagined and “on paper doesn’t do justice to the finished product,” Neff said. 

“I mean, when I see that, it is just like wow. Those are wow moments,” Esquerra said. In addition to the tribal flags, the bottom floor now features a screen where students can tap on any country’s flag and a display will pop up including how many students attend the UA that are from that country.

“We wanted to recognize that these international students are here and let them know that there are other students here like them,” Neff said.

The store also expanded its technology service center. Resembling a mini Apple Store, the area offers iPhone repair services in addition to battery replacements, keyboard and trackpad malfunction repairs, basic troubleshooting services and more.

While the university is still in a financial crisis, Neff said these plans were already in the works before any of these problems came to light. He said the Campus Store renovations were funded strictly by the profits made over the years.

“We are self funded, we take no money from the state. We are a state entity, but we are completely self funded by what we drive out of sales,” Neff said. “Last year, we gave almost $7 million back to the university. So, we made sure long before they had the financial issues that all the money had been set aside so that we could do this.”

The Campus Store, located at 1209 E. University Blvd., is open Mondays-Thursdays from 7:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; hours vary Fridays-Sundays.

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