Labyrinth to launch in November

When Labyrinth Books and the Nassau Street branch of the U-Store open next month, the transformation of how University books and paraphernalia are sold will be complete.

The store openings will cap off more than two years of planning and strategizing aimed at raising the University's profile among the town's retail stores.

In opening the new stores, the University's goal is "thinking how we can best meet the needs of our students and faculty and support the University Store," said Paul Breitman, general manager for University services.

Two U-Stores

Unlike other campus bookstores, which are prominently placed on campus or in a nearby shopping area, Princeton's U-Store has been located on the side street of University Place for decades.

But beginning next month, the new, more visibly situated Nassau Street U-Store will be tailored to community needs, while the University Place store "will be specifically focused as a student store," U-Store president Jim Sykes said.

The University also hopes to improve textbook distribution on campus by using Labyrinth, an independent company that already has successful outlets at Columbia and Yale. Labyrinth will open a branch on Nassau Street next month in conjunction with the Nassau Street U-Store's opening.

The two stores will open for business at about the time anticipated by the University when the changes were announced last fall. "We might be off by a couple of weeks, but we're pretty close to within the original time frame," Sykes said.

The U-Store has had to make some changes to phase out its book distribution, since, in the past, books have produced one-third of the store's revenues. "We've had to refigure our financial model," Sykes said. "The University has been very accommodating in terms of lease arrangements, and we've tried to expand other aspects of our business."

Once its transformation is complete, the U-Store will continue to use the first floor and lower mezzanine of the building it currently occupies, with that space housing many of the non-book items the store currently sells.

"Labyrinth has taken over the book concession," Sykes said, "but other than that, we're going to maintain the rest of our businesses."

The U-2 Convenience Store will close and be integrated into a vastly expanded grocery, prepared food and coffee shop section of the main U-Store. The existing sections for dorm, technology and school supplies will be housed on the first floor and lower mezzanine of the building, along with the Clinique and Pequod concessions.

Sykes said he is planning improvements to several of these sections. "We think we can do a much better job with [technological supplies] than we have done," he said.

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The rest of 36 University Place will be taken over by the University, Breitman said, though its function has yet to be determined. "We want it to generate student traffic," Breitman said.

Navigating Labyrinth

Labyrinth, which is set to open in early November and hold a grand opening celebration Dec. 6, is in the final stages of preparing to serve its first customers. "It's been amazingly smooth so far," said Dorothea Von Moltke, one of the store's owners.

Currently, construction crews are finishing details like painting, installing bookshelves and completing skylight fixtures. The store is replacing Micawber Books, whose owners decided last November to sell their store to the University after 25 years in business.

Labyrinth will distribute all student course books, using a system very different from the one employed by the current U-Store. Instead of browsing through shelves, students will hand a slip to employees, who will give them their books and any pertinent information.

"The idea is to make it as painless as possible," Von Moltke said. "It's a hands-on way of doing course books, which works very well."

On top of serving the University, she added, Labyrinth will cater to local residents. "It's really going to be a large independent community and academic book store," she said. "Course books is a twice-a-year rush. The rest of the year it will be a very well-stocked bookstore and very inviting space."

Von Moltke said she has already begun to design an ambitious events calendar with speakers and authors. "We're hoping these events can help make Nassau even more of a scene between campus and the town itself," she said.

Construction has also been guided by suggestions from a student advisory committee, a pattern Van Moltke said she hopes can continue. "We're hoping for input from students ... to learn from them what would be meaningful and exciting in terms of the content of the store," she said.