PawPrints bookstore: We must learn to be intelligent consumers

Dear Editor,

Going to PawPrints bookstore is like going to a funeral. No one wants to go, no one wants to be there, and upon leaving, no one wants to go back. Yet decorum says our attendance is required at a funeral, and necessity says our attendance is required at the bookstore twice a year.

I am entering my fifth year here, and every year I find myself and the majority of the student body in a state of discontent with PawPrints. However, the weeks roll by, and we forget our indignation and get caught up in school.

This semester has been different. The bookstore hung a banner in front of Parks Hall and in the bookstore challenging on-line purchasing of textbooks. They compared their prices on several textbooks to the prices on popular on-line sites and concluded that PawPrints prices were highly competitive, if not lower, than the prices found on Amazon.com and Half.com.

I grew frustrated with what I construed to be a misleading banner. What about English majors who have to read novels that can be found used at the bookstore for $9.50 and on-line for sometimes as low as a dollar (before the couple dollars for shipping is thrown in)?

I am taking a class called Theories of Composition and Literature with Dr. Dan Bauer. On the first day of class, he walked in with a pile of books. He started handing out the book and told the class that the publisher has traditionally given the books to the school free of charge, but that PawPrints has been selling the books to the students for $15. Bauer was furious and was able to get the books to the students free of charge. “Basically,” he said, “The bookstore has exhorted $1,320 out of the student body in the past two years.”

I went to talk to Bauer after class and shared with him my battles with the bookstore. He told me of another incident with the behemoth of Wilkinson Street. The freshmen this year are required to purchase the “Crossing Over” bundle. Included in the bundle is the summer reading novel and Diane Hacker’s “A Writer’s Reference.” The bookstore receives the bundle for $43.50 and turns around and sells the bundle to young innocent freshmen, who have no other option, for $58, a markup of roughly 33 percent. In the bookstore, the used bundle sells for $43.50, yet a used bundle is not in sight, and I would guess, never has been.

So what are students forced to do with a seemingly monopolistic bookstore? We get angry, but on a whole, we are a passive group of university students, so our anger quickly dissipates. What we need to do is question PawPrints, question the adults that run the giant. That is what I did.

I scheduled a meeting with Kyle Cullars, Director of Auxiliary Services. I was armed with questions and demanded answers, and he was very helpful.

I asked about the book Bauer handed out free to his class. Cullars said, “That book has never been provided to our school free of charge. Never. At the bookstore we have a standard markup, or margin, on textbooks. Any used textbook, our margin is always 35 percent and any new textbook, the margin is 25 percent.”

I asked him about the markup on the “Crossing Over” bundle. The bookstore marked it up 33 percent, instead of the 25 percent for new textbooks. Was the markup a result of fluctuation?

“Yes, there is definitely some fluctuation in the actual dollar amount, but as for the actual margin, there is no fluctuation,” Cullars said.

Throughout the course of the interview, my initial perception of the bookstore changed. Cullars was receptive to my concerns and questions. PawPrints is a business, but it also keeps the students in mind. In some cases, buying online might be a better route to take. However, one must do so aware of unforeseen variables. The bookstore is not out to bludgeon the population, but they are out to make a profit. It is the role of the student to be an intelligent consumer. We have the power to buy from PawPrints or not. Bauer might be right in calling the bookstore “monopolistic,” and Cullars might be right when he says it is “fantastic” that my class received our textbooks free of charge. The important thing to remember is to question these institutions, and in questioning, hopefully, we will find some sense of understanding. I did.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 16 2005. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry