The Observer, October 13, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 7
Pricing and returns confound campus bookstore consumers
One semester living in the North Residential Village with four of your friends: $3,775. A keg of Natural Ice for the party you are throwing: $80. Textbooks for all of your classes: priceless? Definitely not. Buying books for school is indisputably an expensive endeavor in which lack of communication between suppliers and consumers makes transactions infinitely more confusing.
For students purchasing books at the campus bookstore, it is important to know who is involved in the bookstore business at Case. Like any business, there are consumers and providers. Obviously, the students are the consumers, but what student really knows the dynamics of supply involved in the campus bookstore? Technically there are two providers. On a larger scale, Barnes & Noble supplies our campus with the books students need. However, on a day to day basis, students who enter the book store interact with Case employees, who help find the books we need and answer any questions we may have. Given this duet-like organization of supply, students don't know where to turn with their concerns about the store, adding to confusion about pricing and return policies.
You would be hard-pressed to find any college student who believes the prices they pay for textbooks are reasonable. Of course, consumers are biased in that respect. Regardless of the fact that consumers are prone to complain, a brief investigation of student opinion about the bookstore left me startled at how fervently students bemoan the high prices charged by our campus store. Some of the adjectives I've heard students use to describe these prices include "ludicrous," "ridiculously expensive," and my personal favorite, "absolutely insane." In addition, several students say that they now buy their books online or at local booksellers whenever possible to save money. When questioned about whether he buys his books at the campus store, senior psychology and biology major Arnab Majumber replied, "Never." Similarly, senior nursing student Carrie Stoila commented, "Tt's a lot cheaper to get my books online. Once in a while I buy a few from the bookstore if they aren't too expensive."
If these students' words are generalizable to the entire campus population, then it seems reasonable that all students would look to suppliers like half.com or amazon.com for their textbook needs. Why don't they? Convenience is vital to the store's success. Not only is the store conveniently located in the center of campus, but it also offers an online ordering system, which allows students to order books through the university and have them delivered right to their doors. Despite this convenience, it seems possible that online booksellers with cheaper prices might win out over our college store. Yet Jade Roth, vice president and general merchandise manager of Barnes & Noble's college bookstores, points out that competition can work to the advantage of any business. In an interview with Roth, I learned that while the Case bookstore may not be able to offer the lowest-priced books, they offer competition with other booksellers by other means. For instance, Barnes & Noble college bookstore prides itself in an "aggressive effort to offer as many used books to its customers as possible," says Roth. In addition, the store works hard to communicate with professors so that they can offer any text a student at Case might need, whether that student is a mechanical engineer, sociology major, or dental student. So do students feel better about paying such high prices for books if they know they can get any book they need and they might even get it used?
Even if some students frequent the campus bookstore for its convenience and helpfulness in finding obscure texts, there is still the issue of the bookstore's return policy. Near the store's entrance, a sign adorns the wall notifying customers that all books must be returned within the first week of classes in order to be fully refunded. As the add/drop period for classes is two weeks long, the policy does allow for students that have dropped a class to return a book into the second week of class. But why must a student that chooses to drop a class need to prove that he or she is no longer enrolled? Also, shouldn't students be allowed to decide that they might not need a particular book in a class they are still enrolled in?
From the perspective of our Barnes & Noble supplier, the return policy aims to make as many books as possible available to the people that need them. The hope is that one person that no longer needs a book will return it in time to give someone else who might need it the opportunity to buy it. The policy is just one way our supplier tries to avoid a need to order extra books from the publishers. After all, books are expensive for Barnes & Noble too, as they must purchase each book individually from their publishers; there's no discount for buying in bulk.
Senior Frank Trzaska laments the fact that it wasn't even worth his effort to try to return his $165 Human Anatomy textbook after the return deadline had passed. Trzaska had discovered that his friend owned the book he needed a week into classes, but as far as the store is concerned, Trazaska's bad timing is non-negotiable.
Similarly, senior Kyle Orban explained that he was unable to return a book after the deadline despite the fact that he called the store before the deadline had passed to explain that he was off campus but intended to return the book upon his return; upon returning to campus, Orban and his book were turned away from the bookstore with a faint "sorry, too late." Orban's situation exemplifies the fact that a better overall dialogue is needed between suppliers (at all levels) and consumers about some possible exceptions to the policy.
While many students will continue to use the campus bookstore for its convenience, and others may turn increasingly to other outlets to find textbooks, the prevailing student attitude towards communication with the primary campus textbook supplier is one of confusion. ThoughBarnes & Noble is making an effort to accommodate students, more can be done on both sides to facilitate communication and mitigate unsatisfaction.
