The real story of what is happening at Follett isn’t a secret. When Alison introduced Mary Lee Schneider as the new Follett President and CEO to FHEG at the Holiday Luncheon at Drury Lane in December of 2012 Mary Lee started her comments with, know what the value of Follett stock is? Then she went on to detail how the value of Follett stock had lost about 1/3 of its value since the start of the great recession. She didn’t mention that the value of the associates 401K plans had lost about ½ of its value in the same time frame. Maybe Mary Lee didn’t realize that no one outside the Follett family can own real Follett stock (we’re not talking about phantom shares which can be owned outside the family but are only allowed to be owned by a select few and must be sold back upon leaving the company). One would assume that the Follett family feels that they should be immune from the global economy. Mary Lee stated that her only job was to increase the value of Follett stock (that no one but the Follett family can own). Her job was NOT to take exceptional care of our customers, NOT to have the tex books students need for their education, NOT to offer the latest and greatest items for our students, but to make the rich Follett Family richer.
Do the students that make purchases at Follett stores realize that they are lining the pockets of the 1% that they rail against? Do the school administrators realize that Follett only sees them as a revenue stream and not a partner to provide the best for their students? Those that are laid off are only numbers on a spreadsheet. Read the Wall Street Journal. Each time a large company lays off a number of employees their stock value goes up. They are doing the right things to get the company back on track! Look at the successes at Sears and Kmart! Those are the people we want running Follett!
The only number on the spreadsheet that counts is the bottom line, is the Follett family richer? Live the Follett values…what a joke!