Every August, Saint Louis University Bookstore employees pull out “suits of armor” to deflect the rage of the students who filter through to shell out big bucks for books, according to bookstore General Manager Debbe Schneider.
When checkout costs run into the hundreds, some students make a habit of tracking down textbooks through online retailers that offer a cheaper product.
Freshman Becky Wissman bought her books through the bookstore this year, but said she will be going through alternative online retailers in the future.
“It’s cheaper and I think I can do it on my own,” she said.
While the amount of grumbling might suggest otherwise, Schneider said the competition has not affected the bookstore’s business in her 15 years on the job.
In fact, she said, “our business has increased [every year].”
“I understand the impulse [to pursue outside options],” SLU Bookstore Textbook Manager Tricia Polley said.
Still, she believes that the personal service offered in the bookstore trumps the bargains offered elsewhere. She warns that some students are misled while buying books from online retailers or mistakenly get the wrong book. While online retailers might not offer support in those situations, “we’re human beings here,” she said. “We can make [mistakes like] that right.”
Freshman Lowell Daniels, whose haul cost him hundreds of dollars, said he would stick with the SLU Bookstore because of the uneven service of online retailers.
“I’ll just deal with [the cost],” he said. “The campus bookstore is a trusted location.”
Polley attributes the consistent increase in business to the unique service the bookstore provides that outside retailers are lacking. Some of those benefits include the return policy that allows students to exchange their books for the full cost until Sept. 2.
For the fourth year, students looking to avoid the crowds were able to order their books through the bookstore’s Web site and have them boxed and waiting upon their arrival on campus. Schneider said this initiative wasn’t purely an effort to fight other online retailers.
“It’s a means of allowing the students a service,” she said. “It’s not meant [as competition].”
Schneider also credits the store’s “aggressive” pursuit of used books that are offered at a lower price for the continued increase. “We try to have as many used books as we can,” she said. This includes buying books from students at the close of the semester.
The fact remains that textbooks are an expensive part of any student’s academic arsenal. Polley indicated that the higher prices of textbooks are usually related to the amount of research that is constantly being done to keep the newest information included in texts.
“Publishers are driven to provide up-to-date content, to make sure that what you’re studying is going to mean something to you when you graduate,” Polley said.
On a more practical level, Polley cited the issues of inflation, the high weight of books and rising gas prices as reasoning behind high costs.
“If you consider the price that you spend for books and factor in that you can sell them back [to the bookstore] for money, books are the least expensive part of your academic life,” Schneider said.
August is the bookstore’s busiest month, accounting for about 40 percent of its annual revenue, Schneider said. The bookstore brass begins preparation for the rush by adding about 10 extra employees to its regular staff of 30.