Welcome to Toronto!

Welcome to CSCEx '09. We hope you enjoy your stay in Toronto, find great products for your campuses, renew old friendships, and make new ones.

Convertible Laptop/Tote bag

We love this new convertible laptop & tote bag from the designers at Chelsey Henry, a brand which specializes in laptops bags and hand totes, this is the first piece that merges the two needs. And at only $27.00 retail, we think it's a hot product.

New Laptop Stickers

The list of companies offering laptop and ipod stickers seems to grow bigger by the week, but the variety of stickers by under-the-radar brand I Am Human has some of the downright COOLEST stickers we've seen so far. If the images (above) are any indication, quality seems great. Prices look great too, with retail $$ on their site ranging from $30 - $45 USD. Note: while the images above are only of Apple laptops, the brand makes stickers for PC's too.

Calendreco Perpetual Calendar

The Calendreco Perpetual Calendar is one of those ingenious ideas that's so simple you're surprised no one has thought of it before. This ECO calendar (hence the name Calendr-eco) is composed of 1 board containing the numbers and 3 headers in which the days of the week are not placed in the typical Sunday-Monday-Tuesday order. The placement is such that you can use the board year in and year out. Made with responsibly-sourced pulps, carbon neutral and chlorine-free, this beats replacing your calendar every January. Even the inks are non-toxic and vegetable based and the boards are 100% recyclable, so should you ever choose to retire it, you can do so guilt-free.

The Versatile Tube Dress

Tube dresses are one of those apparel items that float in and out of fashion, about once every decade - but two things always on trend with student shoppers are comfort and versatility. The tube dresses from American Apparel offer exactly that. Long enough to wear as a full length piece and simple enough to fold into a skirt with a roll-down waist, it becomes a great staple for college girls everywhere. It's comfortable enough to feel casual and long enough to be work-appropriate. Our junior staffers recommend layering two tube dresses in different colors and folding the base layer over the top of the outer layer to create a two tone ensemble.

A Must-Read For Campus Bookstore Staff

Book Review

Title: Grown up Digital

Author: Don Tapscott

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Published: October 2008

If you run or work in a campus bookstore, then you simply cannot waste another moment not reading this book.

Following up on his book Growing up Digital from well over a decade ago, Tapscott returns to study the new generation, dubbed the Net Generation by the author. Based upon a multi-million dollar four year private research study, Tapscott provides an in-depth look into the routines, habits and challenges of this young generation.

This is a fascinating, eye-opening look at the Net Generation, and serves to contradict many blatant assumptions being made about today's youth. Tapscott deftly handles the claims that today's young people are a bunch of spoiled brats with limited attention spans who have had everything handed to them and have no scrupples by analysing facts and statistics and applying information from surveys with over 11,000 youth.

Including detailed statistics and charts as well as quotes and examples from real youth all over the world, Tapscott demonstrates a generation that is not only remarkably bright and skilled at thinking, interacting and socializing in entirely new ways, but that they are active participants in a complex and challenging world, that they are fine analysts and are concerned about basic integrity.

This timely and well informed book is a must-read for anyone involved in campus retailing. I would stronger urge all managers, buyers and staff who aren't already part of the Net Generation to pick it up and give it a read.

Despite the hard data, charts and graphs, it is an approachable and fascinating book.

And because I cannot state this enough, I would highly recommend Grown up Digital for the insightful suggestions on how to properly connect with and understand the Net Generation without being imposing and causing them more frustration. I would particularly suggest that those who have a negative view of the younger generation and their "technology endowed habits" pick it up and start looking at these details in a whole new light.

Emergency Kits by Ms & Mrs

While the She-mergency kit by Ms & Mrs has been around for a few years now, rising in popularity are the MiniMergency and Collage survival kits. Loaded with sample packs of all-important goodies like band-aids, double-side tape, stain remover, deodorant towelettes (MiniMergency) or ear plugs, sleep masks, needle & thread, privacy door sign (Collage Kit), these cute kits truly do save the day no matter what the catastrophe.

Eco Offerings from Alternative Apparel

Alternative Apparel, quite similar to American Apparel, is a wholesaler of FABULOUS cotton casual basics for the college & university crowds. While they offer goods in conventional cotton, we must admit we are obsessing over their Earth range, which is all eco. Note the henleys, cropped pants, and cardigans (above) are extremlely similar to our product forecast (given at the CSC conference in February 08) for this same season.