Thanks for proving his original point. The author didn't pay enough attention to realize this isn't another MP3 player, just the SOFTWARE to run them. I guess only two of us took the time to read carefully before posting whatever anti-MS witticism popped into our heads.
Yes, bookstores have their mark-ups. They HAVE to in order to survive. At a small liberal arts school like this one, our sport bring in little to no revenue. That leaves the bookstore as the only other auxiliary service that makes money. The college could just subsidize it more, but I think students would probably scream even louder when their tuition goes up again.
I don't know how some schools operate, but the administration does not get involved in textbook adoptions. Our biggest problem is publisher reps calling up professors and convincing them that they just can't teach their course this year with out the brand new 2004 Year-End Reader and Compendium and Slicer and Dicer. As a bookstore, all we can do is order what the professors tell us to. If they insist on a 15 year old out-of-print paperback, we have no choice but to charge the ridiculous cost that we paid to get them.
As far as prices go, of course college store prices will be higher! If company A is trying to move a product, do you think a place like Wal-Mart (which will buy many thousands) or a small liberal-arts college store (which will buy 50, or whatever the necessary minimum is) will get the larger discount? That fact alone renders us unable to compete.
I'm not speaking for the industry as a whole. I'm sure that there are stores out there which border on the absurd. But don't give the rest of us a bad name when we do the best we can.
Exactly. A 25% markup is not much, either, compared to any other type of store.
One day I'll come back and bitch about students abusing a very liberal return policy.:)
For everyone here who complains about college text prices, how many have actually WORKED in a a college bookstore? It's easy to accuse of price-gouging when you have no understanding of how the industry actually works. The biggest offenders are the publishers, not the stores.
When a new textbook package comes with worthless CDs (or in one case, 3D glasses!!) advertised as "free add-ons", it achieves several things. First, by only making these worthless packages available instead of the book by itself, the publisher can basically force professors and students to buy new editions every year. Second, it can then raise the price liberally to account for the so-called "free" material. Publishers HATE used books, and go to some odd lengths to prevent used copies from being viable for very long.
Yeah, high prices suck. I have to pay them too. However, at least I know who is really at fault when I do.
I can't even begin to describe how criminal those three points are. Let me get this straight: your opinion is that, essentially, companies should not be allowed to use data and tools that they develop for their own products until 6 MONTHS has passed by? Because it's NOT FAIR to other companies? Do you have any grounding in reality at all?
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Thanks for proving his original point. The author didn't pay enough attention to realize this isn't another MP3 player, just the SOFTWARE to run them. I guess only two of us took the time to read carefully before posting whatever anti-MS witticism popped into our heads.
Amen! Much better put than my other post.
Yes, bookstores have their mark-ups. They HAVE to in order to survive. At a small liberal arts school like this one, our sport bring in little to no revenue. That leaves the bookstore as the only other auxiliary service that makes money. The college could just subsidize it more, but I think students would probably scream even louder when their tuition goes up again. I don't know how some schools operate, but the administration does not get involved in textbook adoptions. Our biggest problem is publisher reps calling up professors and convincing them that they just can't teach their course this year with out the brand new 2004 Year-End Reader and Compendium and Slicer and Dicer. As a bookstore, all we can do is order what the professors tell us to. If they insist on a 15 year old out-of-print paperback, we have no choice but to charge the ridiculous cost that we paid to get them. As far as prices go, of course college store prices will be higher! If company A is trying to move a product, do you think a place like Wal-Mart (which will buy many thousands) or a small liberal-arts college store (which will buy 50, or whatever the necessary minimum is) will get the larger discount? That fact alone renders us unable to compete. I'm not speaking for the industry as a whole. I'm sure that there are stores out there which border on the absurd. But don't give the rest of us a bad name when we do the best we can.
Exactly. A 25% markup is not much, either, compared to any other type of store. One day I'll come back and bitch about students abusing a very liberal return policy. :)
For everyone here who complains about college text prices, how many have actually WORKED in a a college bookstore? It's easy to accuse of price-gouging when you have no understanding of how the industry actually works. The biggest offenders are the publishers, not the stores.
When a new textbook package comes with worthless CDs (or in one case, 3D glasses!!) advertised as "free add-ons", it achieves several things. First, by only making these worthless packages available instead of the book by itself, the publisher can basically force professors and students to buy new editions every year. Second, it can then raise the price liberally to account for the so-called "free" material. Publishers HATE used books, and go to some odd lengths to prevent used copies from being viable for very long.
Yeah, high prices suck. I have to pay them too. However, at least I know who is really at fault when I do.
I can't even begin to describe how criminal those three points are. Let me get this straight: your opinion is that, essentially, companies should not be allowed to use data and tools that they develop for their own products until 6 MONTHS has passed by? Because it's NOT FAIR to other companies? Do you have any grounding in reality at all?