Stepan Bookstore experiences delays in book shipments due pandemic-related complications.
According to Irma Galarza, Stepan Book store manager, the pandemic has caused problems for all the publishing industry. The shipment delivery – usually three to five business for publishing companies – now take more than seven days. Publisher Weekly also details updates to the publishing dates on their website.
The reasons for the delays are the inevitable decrease of publisher warehouse and shipping company staff due to COVID-19. The increase of online purchases also challenged shipping vendors (FedEx, UPS, USPS), causing significant delays, according to Galarza.
Some of the Dominican departments affected include the nursing department. The customization and assembling time for the textbooks also attribute to the belated arrival time. Galarza said the Stepan Bookstore team plans to work with the publishers for a tracking number and estimated time of arrival, informing instructors of the progress in the meantime.
Galarza notes that the spring semester will also be impacted by the pandemic.
“Our goal is to still be transparent and communicate to the appropriate departments on any issue,” Galarza said.
