Student Services Spotlight: The College Store

This article is part of a series highlighting our Student Services offices and what they can do for you. For information about all HFC student services, please visit the Student Services and section of our website.

The College Store on the main HFC campus has long been the central location at HFC to purchase course books, supplies, and HFC merchandise. It is harder to serve students' needs during the pandemic, but the staff have adjusted and stand ready to serve HFC students with purchasing course materials throughout each semester.

While the College Store is closed to the public during the pandemic, it is staffed during normal business hours (Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) to fulfill orders, take phone calls, answer emails, and conduct other bookstore business. The College Store is only accepting online orders.

Order course materials online

During business hours, the College Store processes online orders, preparing them for UPS shipping. All the orders are fulfilled with College Store stock. The College Store does not work with any outside vendors to fulfill orders.

Orders are shipped to each student’s home. The College Store accepts orders online via its website and not by phone. The College Store accepts credit cards (Visa, Discover, MasterCard) and financial aid.

How to make sure you receive the right order at the right time

To ensure the ordering process runs smoothly, students need to make sure they have sufficient funds in their financial aid account prior to placing an order.

“Right now, our system does not check to see if a student has financial aid before placing an order. At this point, the systems don’t prevent a student from placing an order with insufficient funding. As a result, the order ends up getting cancelled,” explained Hall.

Students are encouraged to consolidate their orders as much as possible instead of ordering multiple times. They should order as early as possible. Students should also ensure the accuracy of their shipping and email addresses.

“For example, CIS 100 has an access code option which is a physical package that has to be sent via UPS to the students,” said Hall. “Some students believe that the code is an instant code that is sent to their email, and they don’t afford enough time for the access code to be shipped to them.”

Book buyback alternative

The College Store is not offering book buyback on its premises for the foreseeable future. However, students can sell their books back directly to the Nebraska Book Company. There also are many other options online for students to sell their textbooks on their own.

Hall asks students to be patient because the College Store staff is receiving so many orders. She does promise that they will get the students’ orders fulfilled as soon as possible.

Rental Returns

Fall 2020 rental returns need to be returned to the College Store by Monday, Dec. 21. There is a drop box by the Building A entrance (near the flagpole and circle drive). Only College Store rentals should be placed in the drop box. Early College and library books need to be returned to their respective locations.

“We are doing all we can to prepare for the Winter 2021 Semester,” said Hall. “Every term varies from the previous term, and we will encounter new challenges even as we learn from the past, especially as we navigate this pandemic.”

For questions or more information, contact the College Store at 313-845-9603 or collegestore@hfcc.edu.