Abilene Educational Supply and Christian Bookstores will close its doors this May after 66 years of business.
The ACU-owned entity, located on Campus Court next to the ACU Police station, offers teaching supplies for both secular and church classrooms and serves a variety of customers, including local churches, homeschooling families, public school teachers and education majors.
Anthony Williams, chief auxiliary services officer at ACU, said the university decided to close the store following a year of low sales citywide.
“Over the last year within the city, there’s been a significant reduction in retail sales,” Williams said. “AES wasn’t insulated from those effects.”
According to Williams and the store’s manager, Denise Emery, an increase in competition has also lead to the store’s demise. Williams said online shopping and catalog ordering are two ways many customers are now buying their educational supplies. Emery said the opening of Mardel’s, a regional retail Christian education store, two years ago also played a huge role in AES’ decrease in sales.
“Since Mardel opened, we’ve had 50 percent losses,” Emery said.
Williams said AES offers a very unique shopping experience and its closing saddens the ACU management as well as its customers.
Customers like Bayley Williams, senior elementary education major from Coppell, are disappointed to hear about the closing. Bayley Williams said she usually visits the store about twice a semester for class project supplies.
“Everyone’s really upset
that it’s closing,” BayleyWilliams said. “It’s so convenient because it’s right here on campus. Every time I’ve gone in there they’ve been really friendly and helpful.”
Although the majority of AES merchandise will no longer be offered by any ACU entity, Anthony Williams said the Campus Store will likely pick up some of the Christian-themed products.
AES has already begun to mark down many of its supplies and will continue similar sales to liquidate its remaining merchandise throughout the next semester, Anthony Williams said.
