RE: The price of eduction ...
August 26, 2004
This wouldn't fit in the comment section of Donna's blog, so I hope she doesn't mind that I comment it here.
How ironic is it that Donna posted about a bookstore and I have a lot to comment on. Perhaps I'll have to do this in installments because I think there is a limit on how long the comments can be ... here it goes:
I used to work for the other end of the textbook scheme of things. I remember flyers around like this one and I just remember that there were only 5 employees at the bookstore. 5.
3 of us were hourly, all part-timers. So I celarly wasn't getting much of that piece of the dollar. That being said, for every hundred dollars sold, the employees get $11. When I worked an 8 hour day it would take just over $400 in revenue to pay for my wages, and that is gross, my paychecks weren't that big (government's fault this time, not the bookstore). There would be days that we would bring in revenue of over $10,000 in my register alone. Let me tell you, I didn't get the extra in commission, I basically just sold enough to pay for 25 employees that day. That being said I think the problem with the cost of textbooks is that some portions of the dollar are being greedy and taking more than they need.
Somehow I lucked out and didn't have a semester over $400, but I know a lot of students who do. Even English majors who get to buy the cheesy little paperback books have a tendency of spending $300+ for a single semester, not to mention the science majors who I've rung out at over $600 at times.
In many cases, the professor likes to include books in the syllabus that would be good references. *If I wanted a reference book, I would go to the library*
I'm sorry Donna about the lack of funding for your branch office. I can't help that much, except to say that you should get more of the dollar than you are currently getting.
I do think that textbook prices need to be lowered. The price hike in the past several years is uncalled for. I'm sure there are students that drop out of college because they can't pay for both college AND books. That is just a shame. I think the textbook publishers should set realistic MSRPs on the books and the bookstores should take only what they need.
Counter- Argument: But bookstores overprice the textbooks, is because they can monopolize on items like that. It is more reasonable to jack the prices of textbooks because students can't exactly buy them at Wal*mart.
Rebuttal: This is a classic case of which came first the chicken or the egg. Did students become averse to shopping in the bookstores because they textbooks prices were too high and they didn't want to give them the extra business, therefore sending the students to department stores? Or did department stores use tactics to lure the students into buying supplies taking away from the bookstore business in supplies causing the bookstores to raise textbooks prices to make up for lost revenue in supplies.
Posted by Brian McCollum at August 26, 2004 12:57 PM
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Comments
"Perhaps I'll have to do this in installments " ... that was copy and pasted because I tried to do it in Haloscan comments, but it didn't work out for me.
Posted by: Brian at August 26, 2004 01:01 PM
Literature, Brian, is not cheesy.
Posted by: Donna at August 26, 2004 01:05 PM
I guess I meant chintz.
Gosh that looks wrong, but I guess it is the right spelling.
I'm not an English person, sorry to offend.
Posted by: Brian at August 26, 2004 01:14 PM
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