Polybuchhandlung and SAB to merge to form the ETH Store Cooperative
A shared objective: the Polybuchhandlung and SAB are joining forces to extend the services available at the two ETH campuses, Zentrum and Hönggerberg.
They were founded by students in 1959 and 1976, and now it’s hard to imagine ETH Zurich without them: the ETH students’ self-help cooperative (SAB) and the Polybuchhandlung cooperative bookshop (PBH).
Now they are to merge, and in future will call themselves the «ETH Store Cooperative». Together with ETH Store AG, which sells items of merchandising, the two companies will now trade under the name «ETH Store».
The current SAB Manager Ruth Meier-Wüthrich will take over as head of the new cooperative. The current SAB President Noah Munzinger has been voted in as Chairman. All jobs and sales outlets will be retained. There will also continue to be training places for apprentices, and work placements and jobs for students.
A common history
SAB and PBH have always been closely connected: they are linked by decades of working together to run sales outlets on the two ETH campuses, Zentrum and Hönggerberg. They both operate on a not-for-profit basis and their shops sell books and other articles that students need for their studies.
The same criteria will apply to the merged organisation. The product range and services will be further expanded: «There will be a bigger range of e-books available. And we will be attaching even more importance to sourcing sustainably produced items,» says Ruth Meier-Wüthrich.
On an organisational level, the merger will mean that commercial decisions can be made more efficiently and more account can be taken of students’ interests.
The funding for the new ETH Store Cooperative will continue to come from a broad base of nearly twenty active organisations. These include the VSETH (Student Union), specialist associations at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, organisations for non-tenured staff and the ETH Alumni Association.
Changes on the Polyterrasse
There will be no change in the facilities on the Hönggerberg campus, because the two shops there have been combined since February 2013. «Since the conversion, the shop seems much friendlier and the customers have more room,» says Ruth Meier-Wüthrich.
Over the coming summer months, the existing sales outlets of the Polybuchhandlung and SAB on the Polyterrasse will be reorganised. The aim is to combine them too, so that customers can find the complete range in one place.