A century old, still member owned

Every day dozens of students, parents, staff and tourists pass through the multilevel Princeton University Store. But while patrons shop among textbooks, school supplies and Princeton paraphernalia, many have no idea just how unique the school's flagship bookstore really is.

"We're a coop," marketing director Virginia France said. "Some enterprises have shareholders who invest in the company and then earn profits through their stock. We don't do that. We're owned by the members."

Generally, a coop is a democratic organization whose earnings and assets belong to the members. Unlike a traditional coop, the U-Store's 60,000 members, or owners, don't directly control the store's annual revenue.

Instead, the store is governed by a 16-member board of trustees, composed of six undergraduate students, two graduate students, two faculty members, one member of the University administration, four members at-large — of whom at least three must be alumni — and a president. Students, who serve two-year terms, are elected in late spring after submitting to the nominating committee a petition signed by 10 fellow U-Store members.

The committee nominates the four at-large members of the Board, while the University president appoints the administration trustee and the faculty elects its two representatives.

The U-Store's members share in the store's profits by the discounts they receive on merchandise. Owners enjoy a 10 percent discount on non-textbook publications and a five percent discount on all other store merchandise, including textbooks.

The potential savings have prompted many students to become U-Store members, earning a plastic orange card emblazoned with "owner/member."

"I signed up the day I got accepted [to Princeton]," said Meaghan Petersack '08, who lives in Hamilton. She said she's more than earned back the $25 fee to become a lifetime member. "My family just loves the Princeton gear. I probably estimate I've spent $750 at the store since first coming to Princeton," she said.

Even newcomers to campus have taken advantage of the discounts that come with being a coop member.

"I joined because all you do is pay the $25 fee and then you save on all your school supplies, books and Princeton gear," Mary Marshall '10 said. "I will always be buying stuff at the U-Store, even after I graduate. The membership will pay for itself tenfold."

At the age of 101, the U-Store is one of the oldest university bookstore coops in the nation.

"We don't exactly know when the store was founded," France said. "We recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of [the coop's] incorporation in 1905, but there are bits of information that suggest it may have started quite a bit before that."

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The U-Store, which is not affiliated with the University, has retained its independence even while other college bookstores and even coops have been taken over by larger bookstore chains.

The Coop, officially known as the Harvard/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cooperative Society, was founded in 1882 by a group of Boston students. But France was quick to stress the difference between the two institutions.

"The thing about Harvard is that they actually have a Barnes and Noble," she said. But while patrons at other stores may receive similar discounts, members of the U-Store are actually part-owners, something unique to a dying breed of coops.

"There aren't many real coops of any kind around anymore," France said. "We feel pretty confident in saying that Princeton's is one of the oldest."