Books and business: Capitol setup
“BOOKSTORE” from page 1
University Park, Harrisburg
Area Community College
(H.A.C.C.), and Franklin and
Marshall, a private liberal arts
college.
Capitol Campus, of course, is
unique as the only upper
division school. Yet since a
bookstore is a business, we
assumed that comparable
markets should receive
comparable services. In other
The Franklin and Marshall College bookstore offers a selection of magazines.
words, the Capitol Campus
Bookstore with 2,500 student
customers should provide better
service than at small campuses
such as Hazleton with 1,100
students, Berks with 1,000, and
comparable service to Franklin
and Marshall with its 2,000
students. We assumed wrong.
Even compared to much
smaller bookstores, Capitol
Campus’ store seemed to have
fewer essential services, more
limited selections of books and
store items, and the fewest cost
advantages for students.
Cost of bodes, of course, is
the largest single student
concern. And while all the
stores sold new bodes at
suggested retail prices, the real
savings and service was in used
books bought and sold.
Here at Capitol Campus, the
bookstore does not sell or buy
used books. While an
independent book buyer does
come in once a year to buy used
bods, this service is not widely
publicized.
The two smallest bodes tores,
Hazelton and Berks, both sell
used bods at substantial
savings to their students.
Hazelton sells used bodes at
two-thirds original price and at
Berks used bodes go for 25
percent below retail.
At Berks, books are bought
back at 50 percent of the
current price and at Hazleton,
an outside book buyer comes in
twice a year to make purchases
from students.
At University Park, the
school bookstore makes a
special effort to buy back used
books, setting up buying tables
in residence halls at the
beginning of each term. At
H.A.C.C., used books are sold,
but a special table for Bodes On
Discount Sale is a prominent
feature and students are
allowed to sell bods on a
special bulletin board inside of
the store.
Franklin and Marshall is
unique because the used bod
buying and selling is handled by
student clubs ana fraternities
as social fund-raising activities.
The bookstore, however, also
stocks and sells used textbooks.
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Another major complaint
against the Capitol Campus
Bookstore is that it regularly
underorders classroom
textbooks in order to avoid the
possible cost of shipping extra
books back to the publishers.
“I’ve learned that I have to
buy bodes before the term
starts because the bookstore
reduces the number of bodes
the professors request. The
store runs out,” says Alice
Duncan, a graduate student.
And as Dr. Donald Alexander,
Associate Professor of
Education says, “The
F and M students browse throngh their bookstore.
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