Next semester‘s textbook arrived. $160 later 🙄. $43 on Amazon, but because of the stupid code I HAD to buy the golden ticket version through the bookstore. What a mafia racket they‘re running.
PurpleTulipGirl I worked for 3 college bookstores for a total of about 8 years. They have to order what the professor asks for, and the publishers sales reps convince the professors their students need extra stuff (which the students almost never use) to try to sell more new books. It sucks, because the publishers need to make money to keep going, but the students hear the burden of paying for stuff they don‘t want or need. 3y
TheBookDream @PurpleTulipGirl oh that‘s interesting. I didn‘t consider that there were sales reps marketing directly to teachers. 3y
TheBookDream What I am really curious to know is why the stores always set the prices at maximum, when pretty much everywhere else (not just Amazon) doesn‘t. Contract thing? It‘s weird. 3y
PurpleTulipGirl Disclaimer: I last worked for a store in 2002, so things may be different now. Reps would visit profs, especially of lower level classes (more students) to push texts. Stores have to pay to ship books in and ship unsold ones back, which gets pricey. Lots of things can‘t be predicted, like what classes get canceled or who will get hired last minute and need books in a hurry. Figuring out how many books to buy was a guessing game sometimes. ⬇️⬇️ 3y
PurpleTulipGirl We used enrollment history and sales, and bought based on that. Publishers needed to make money, and would push out updated editions of books so fewer used could be sold. Lower print runs mean higher item cost, and college stores can‘t afford to sell on a slim margin. No matter how careful we were, we always had books to return, books to order in a hurry, so more shipping costs. Shipping was a big line item, and not something easily reduced. 3y
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