Campus Bookstore in Ames
- Thread starter Cycsk
- Start date
Since always. The bookstore is a service the University provides to students. I'm not saying the textbooks aren't cheaper online or that the bookstore is some model of efficiency, but saying there's some scrooge in the back room thinking up new ways to screw students is naive.
Textbooks are expensive because publishers can get away with it, the professors effectively making the purchasing decision don't actually buy a textbook and thus have an incentive to prioritize quality and completeness over cost, and because the information textbooks contain is costly to compile (all those data tables in the back of engineering textbooks aren't free). The cheap books you get online are either sold directly student-to-student, are some sort of clearance deal, or are international editions and thus have less gouging by the publisher built in.
It also helps that the online store has lower overhead than the university bookstore, but that's just the nature of the beast and not some plot to screw you over.
I don't recall anyone on this thread, myself particularly, accusing school bookstores of "screwing anyone over." I merely challenged the idea that they are selling books as loss leaders. Maybe they are doing so because they know they can make it back with the buy-back and future resales. Yet, I think it is more likely that they are making money on the initial and the resale.
It isn't a matter of screwing students, just doing business profitably. The example to which I replied specifically was a bookstore selling a $300 book for $200 because they could buy it back for $50 and resell it for $100. I just can't imagine a bookstore selling a $300 book for $200 (unless they bought it with a 40% wholesale discount or it is late in the term and they are just dumping it because they can't return it).
ha yeah on rereading totally overreacted to your comment, sorry. I do see the sentiment that "the book store is evil" on campus and it always frustrates me. Anyway in some of the other comments a couple pages back there's some more support for thinking that they could pretty easily cover their losses by reselling used books. I agree with you that it seems like a strange model on first glance, but I don't really have any experience in retail so I don't know how common this sort of thing is. I wonder how much more likely buying a new book at the bookstore makes you to resell it there?
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I'm a capitalist. Making a profit is good. Gouging is bad. Selling at a loss in order to offer "reasonably prices" just doesn't seem to make sense. The market usually takes care of itself, as long as something doesn't interfere, such as government subsidies or predatory pricing to drive away competition. At any rate, I look for the University Bookstore to have less "reasonably priced" books now that they don't have competition across the street.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Ha ha. Not that kind of capitalist. I'm the kind of company owner who likes that the sales staff can make more than me. And the kind of owner who will sacrifice my own compensation before I will lay off an employee.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Maybe the Board of Regents will use it for office space for the new committee that is supposed to figure out how to get rid of the millions of dollars of student tuition being set aside for need-based scholarships even though it is a public institution.
I completely disagree. Campus Bookstore was never a serious rival or threat to UBS. Amazon, Chegg, Buy.com, etc. all are. UBS knows as their prices spread further from online alternatives less books and merchandise will be purchased in the bookstore.
It's losing money short term, but making a TON of money in the long run. How many text books are used for one semester? Few, if any. UBS makes a TON of money on buying used books and reselling them in the future.
Selling the PS3 at a loss sounds bad too, but Sony makes boatloads of money on the PS3. UBS isn't a traditional business. There are other motives outside the highest profit. UBS selling books at retail is suicide. As the gap between online price and in-store price grows, UBS loses business. It isn't like UBS is selling all new books at a loss, but some of the higher priced books are being sold at a loss and they're hoping to make up the margin on the other books purchased to break even.
Selling the PS3 at a loss sounds bad too, but Sony makes boatloads of money on the PS3. UBS isn't a traditional business. There are other motives outside the highest profit. UBS selling books at retail is suicide. As the gap between online price and in-store price grows, UBS loses business. It isn't like UBS is selling all new books at a loss, but some of the higher priced books are being sold at a loss and they're hoping to make up the margin on the other books purchased to break even.[/QUOTE]
I don't think the PS3 comparison is valid. The PS3 is connected with all sorts of associated subsequent purchases. Selling it at a loss makes sense.
Maybe selling textbooks at a loss makes sense, but I still suspect that most bookstores are making a profit on the initial sale as well as the resales rather than doing the initial sale at a 50% loss as was stated in the example (unless there is a wholesale discount or some other factor involved, such as selling books after the first few weeks of the term).
I don't think the PS3 comparison is valid. The PS3 is connected with all sorts of associated subsequent purchases. Selling it at a loss makes sense.
Maybe selling textbooks at a loss makes sense, but I still suspect that most bookstores are making a profit on the initial sale as well as the resales rather than doing the initial sale at a 50% loss as was stated in the example (unless there is a wholesale discount or some other factor involved, such as selling books after the first few weeks of the term).
New textbooks you just hope to break even on. Car dealers are the same way. New cars don't produce a whole lot of profit (profit margins under 10% on new cars are quite common). New gets people on the lot, used makes money.
Many textbooks they can get cheap will be marked up. The really expensive business/engineering books are subsidized by the 40 page pamphlet things you get for English classes at $50 and the other things they can charge a premium for because no one else has them.
So, do you really know the school bookstore business? Or are you just explaining how you think it works? I don't really know the bookstore business, so I'm just explaining how I think it works.
And I don't thing the comparisons make sense. For instance, 10% over invoice on a $25k new vehicle is not bad, especially if you have some other dimensions of the deal like getting a discount on invoice because you bought a certain volume or at a particular time of year. I think Wilson Toyota makes a reasonable profit on nearly every car it sells. I don't think they aren't giving me a deal on a new car because they want me to come back so they can make more money on a used car.
We need to hear from Tron!
