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DTH/ERIK PEREL
Former Tar Heel Textbooks manager Joe Turk said the store closed on March 22 because of cramped space, not
because of bad business. The shop, which opened in 1988, was Student Stores' only major competiton.
Boone Book Renters
Pay S4B a Semester
BYSALLIELACY
STAFF WRITER
Spending S4B per semester on textbooks might sound like a
dream or maybe even a joke.
But that is all students at Appalachian State University in Boone
pay.
ASU, which is part of the 16-campus UNC system, uses a rental
system for textbooks. The SBO2 that students pay for tuition each
semester includes the S4B needed to rent any number ofbooks from
the student bookstore.
The 11,866 students find that hunting for the less-expensive
used book, going to three bookstores to find the best deal, checking
out books from the library or sharing books with a friend is a waste
of time. The cost is still S4B.
Another perk of the rental system is that there is virtually no
threat of having books stolen to get money back from the book
store. The bookstore does not buy back rented books because it
already owns them.
If a student loses a book, he or she can’t turn in someone else’s
book as their own because the last four digits of the students’ social
security numbers are stamped in each of their books.
If the books are turned in late, or they are damaged—that does
not include highlighting—then students must buy them, said Don
George, ASU textbook manager.
Or if they want to hold on to the books, the students can buy
them at 25 percent off the original price.
The rental system would never work at UNC because it requires
total faculty cooperation to be effective, George said.
Gina Mahalek, course materials manager at Student Stores, is
also skeptical of the rental system. With a such a system, faculty
teaching the same course would have to agree on the same book,
she said.
“From the academic freedom point of view, all faculty like to
have the freedom to teach what they want,” Mahalek said. “A
rental system would set the curriculum for three or four years, and
it might not be a vital curriculum.”
AI9BO study was done by the Student-Faculty Store Commit
tee to explore die possibility of changing the Student Stores sales
practices to a rental system. The study concluded that Student
Stores would be willing and able to run a rental system, if asked.
The report added: “It is our feeling that the more we participate
in the nationwide used book market, the more successful we will
be.”
But the report also said the net profit from a rental system might
be less than from book sales, resulting in a drop in the amount
See BOONE, Page 6
FOCUS
Colleges Look for Top Text System
BY SARA FRISCH
STAFF WRITER
Imagine buying a stack of textbooks in the
fall, returning to the bookstore three months
later for a partial rebate, and still having the
opportunity to sell your books back at the
end of the semester.
Students at the University of Kansas can
do just that at the private, nonprofit Kansas
Union Bookstore that is affiliated with the
university.
A mix of university-owned stores, non
profit organizations and private corporations
sell textbooks in college communities across
the nation. But the lack of competition seems
to be what separates the market in Chapel
Hill from other university towns.
The system at UNC is fairly simple now
X 3®§;: ■- ' J*-.' ROfi -SSj
DTH/ ERIK PEREL
Freshman Andrea McAlister mulls over a purchase in Student Stores. The store plans to add four cash registers and
more employees to counter the added business expected after the closing of Tar Heel Textbooks.
How Book Buying Changes at a
UNC Without Tar Heel Textbooks
BY ELLEN FLASPOEHLER
ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR
When Pop’s Tar Heel Textbooks closed its doors March 22,
it meant more to the University than just another local business
failing.
It left UNC Student Stores as the only major source for sales
and buybacks of textbooks in Chapel Hill.
This has many students wondering what will happen to book
prices and the already long lines at the on-campus bookstore.
Tar Heel Textbooks, which opened in 1988, had served
students who were shopping for the best deal in books, said Joe
Turk, the store’s former manager.
Turk said the business at 301 W. Franklin St. had been doing
fairly well but might have done better had they been able to
expand it.
“We wanted to stay within walking distance of
the campus and had been looking for more
retail space for five years, and that just
didn’t appear likely on Franklin Street,”
he said. “The owners felt it was not worth V
the investment to run the business in such jig
a small space. We couldn’t even cany
books for all departments. ”
Arkansas Book Services, which [\
owned Tar Heel Textbooks, and store L
managers had been talking about clos
ing the store for a long time, Turk said. JKk
“We had no conscious plan,” he said. illll
“We kept looking for space and it never
materialized, so we eventually had to
make a decision, and that is why we
closed when we did.” f
The store's closing caught some Stu- V
dent Stores officials by surprise.
“I don’t know why they closed,” said
John Jones, director of Student Stores. “I
talked to one of their people who said they felt
they didn’t have enough space. The closing
seemed surprising because I don’t think they were
having money problems.”
The Waiting Game
The obvious effect ofTar Heel T extbooks’ closing is that there
is now only one major place to buy and sell books, Turk said.
Student Stores already had between 80 and 90 percent of the
textbook market before Tar Heel Textbooks closed. Some are
concerned that the closing will increase the length of the already
long waits at Student Stores.
“The lines at Student Stores are tremendously long, and I
think they will be made worse now that Tar Heel Textbooks is
gone,” said Kari Whisnant, a sophomore from Claremont who
was a Tar Heel Textbooks customer.
Ashley O’Brien, ajunior from Raleigh, agreed: “It was ridicu
lous at Student Stores with the lines. I used to go to Tar Heel
Textbooks to sell my books because of the lines.”
In the past, Jones said Student Stores has had between 24 and
26 registers running during the book-buying rush; he said four
more would be added in the fall.
“They had about four registers at Tar Heel Textbooks, so that
should provide a balance at Student Stores,” he said.
Other improvements being made to speed up lines include an
that Tar Heel Textbooks, a private used book
store, has closed. Alpha Phi Omega’s student
run book exchange and several bookstores that
don’t specialize in textbooks share a negligible
percentage of the textbook industry, but Student
Stores is the only major outlet for textbooks in
Chapel Hill.
TTiat’s not the case at the University of Vir
ginia, where the university-ownedbookstore com
petes with two private ones in Charlottesville.
John Kates, director of University Bookstore
at UVA, said the school opened its outlet about
30 years ago to keep the market for textbooks
more competitive. The student government also
runs a book exchange, but it is not a large-scale
operation, Kates said.
The market in Bloomington, home of Indiana
University, is similar to that of Charlottesville.
lU’s university-owned bookstore is in competi
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tion with two private bookstores that sell new and
used books. However, the market is further com
plicated by a purchasing agreement that divides
the market before the students start shopping.
Celeste Glanzer, the textbook manager at the
Indiana University Bookstore, said her book
store received book order requests from faculty
and then ordered only 40 percent of that number.
The agreement with the two private book
stores provides for one to order 40 percent and the
other 20 percent. Thus, the competition between
stores to attract IU students is limited prior to the
buying season.
Bookstores in Gainesville, where the Univer
sity of Florida is located, not only compete for
textbook sales, but also for textbook orders.
“We try to have the departments send all the
book orders here,” said Dennis Barry, senior
See COLLEGES, Page 6
Wednesday, April 12,1995
upgraded computer system for running the cash registers, faster
credit card approval and additional employees helping to bag
books so that cashiers don’t have to do it.
Gina Mahalek, course materials manager for Students Stores,
said students would be pleased with how fast the lines move and
that the building would be able to accommodate student needs.
“We are improving the system and making internal changes
that are invisible to the customer but will be beneficial to the
customer and will help streamline the process,” she said.
“Students should remember that peak buying times are after
class and after the first day of classes,” she added. “They can
purchase books at any register in the store. The store will have
extended hours, so evening and closing hours are the best time to
shop.”
Honey Matters
But longer lines aren’t the only student concern;
many are worried about the potential for higher
prices now that Student Stores doesn’t
have any significant competition.
“There will be serious repercussions
from the closing of Tar Heel Text
flL- books,’’said Andrew Kendall, a sopho
more from Goldsboro and a Student
Pv. Stores customer. ‘ ‘This has taken away
|ijr (Student Stores’) biggest competitor
and forms a monopoly.
“Books are expensive enough as it
is, and Student Stores doesn’t need
the opportunity to raise prices,” he
added. “There is a good chance they
will”
But both Jones and Mahalek stressed
that book prices would not increase,
2 and that the price of books was never
based on other stores’ prices.
“We use the publisher’s list price pro
* vided by the book industry to set our own
prices, andTar Heel Textbooks did the same,"
Jones said. “We are not here to make money but
to serve students. Asa business, we do have to make
some money to keep ourselves going, but the rest goes back
into student scholarships.”
He did say that prices would be affected by how fast Student
Stores learned what books faculty would need for the semester, so
that it could search used book sources earlier.
“We have a budget to buy back lots of books this year,”
Mahalek said. “Faculty submission of their order forms will affect
the prices. We need to know faculty orders before final exams so
we can enter the information into our database to know what
books we are looking for.”
Buyback prices are set nationally, she said, adding that stu
dents get 50 percent of the book’s new price, whether it is anew
or used book, if the store knows it will be used in the coming year.
Jones said that if the store didn’t know whether a book would
be re-used, then it could only pay the national wholesaler rate of
$5 to $lO per book.
To improve the buybackperiod.Mahaleksaid the storeplanned
to build awareness of additional buyback locations. She said
SeeTEHBOOKS,Page6
1 '" . ~
V- " ~~
“You couidget in and out of
(Tar Heel Textbooks) in two
minutes. It s going to be a lot
more of a hassle. ”
NEATH PRIOR
? i n
“It won’t have any effect
because I buy my books from
the school anyway. Td rather
give my money to the school. ”
MARC WOJNOWKN
5