Announcing a new campus store partner for UW Tacoma

Dear UW Tacoma faculty and staff,

I am thrilled to announce that we will soon have a new campus store on Pacific Avenue.

Today we have signed an agreement with Follett Higher Education to open and operate the UW Tacoma Shop at 1754 Pacific Ave., in the ground floor of Garrettson, Woodruff & Pratt (GWP). The store will also have an online presence.

Follett will be our new partner for distribution of course materials and textbooks. The shop, both at Pacific Ave. and online, will also offer UW and UW Tacoma-branded merchandise, apparel, technology, general books, and other categories of products that are relevant to the campus community. I am excited about the opportunity this partnership brings for our students to have access to the items they need to be successful.

Follett Higher Education is a leading campus store operator in North America, with more than 1,000 physical and e-commerce shops. They are not new to Washington, operating stores at 14 other public and private institutions in our state, including Pierce College, Bellevue College, the Seattle Colleges, Seattle University, Gonzaga University and Washington State University.

They work with many leading academic publishers and have made substantial investments in digital content delivery. For example, they integrate with Canvas, the UW learning management system.

Follett is already working on the design of the UW Tacoma Shop, and an opening date will be announced soon. Faculty will soon receive a separate communication describing how the course material ordering process will work for the autumn 2023 quarter.

The UW Tacoma Shop will operate in the space previously occupied by the University Book Store, which closed its physical presence on Pacific Avenue in January 2023.

I would like to thank the UW Tacoma staff who have been working diligently to bring the benefits of this new partnership to our students, campus and community. If you have any questions about the UW Tacoma Shop, please contact Joe Lawless at jlawless@uw.edu.