Bookstore reacts to mixed feedback
May 4, 2007
Matt Avery doesn't hate the University Bookstore.
In fact, he liked it well enough to create five pro-Bookstore public-service announcements with three friends and then submit the PSAs to the I Don't Hate the Bookstore Film Festival.
And one of his team's PSAs, out of a pool of 22, took first place in the festival at the award ceremony on Wednesday.
Called "PlayScreen Trouble," the winning entry resembles the recent "Get a Mac" commercials, except the Mac is the University Bookstore buyer and the PC is the online shopper.
In the PSA, the online shopper rants to a relaxed bookstore shopper about the difficult nature of selling his books online while the bookstore buyer, shown as the cooler of the two, plays a handheld game as he plays up how easy and cost-efficient it was to sell his books back to the bookstore.
"Even though it's somewhat expensive, they still try to help the students out by putting money toward student activities and stuff," he said. "And it's really convenient."
But Michelle Froese, Student and Auxiliary Services spokeswoman said she has heard complaints from students.
"All of us in the management staff have, at one point or another, heard somebody go, 'This is a ripoff!'" she said.
Froese said students' complaints prompted the bookstore to try to change that perception.
The winning entries will be shown on the plasma screens in the bookstore, TigerTech and Memorial Union, as well as on the University Bookstore Web site, Froese said.
The PSAs will premiere during Summer Welcome, Froese said, Nicole Schultz said she doesn't really hate the Bookstore.
The interdisciplinary studies senior took a break from reading a book with a "USED" sticker on it in the Brady Commons cafeteria Thursday to say that the bookstore is convenient and useful.
"I know that I'm getting the right book — the right edition, the right author — and you can use the student charge, so you don't have to whip out the credit card," Schultz said.
Her modus operandi contrasts that of Ashley Stockman, a senior psychology major who sold some textbooks on Thursday to Acorn Books owner Ken Green.
"I think that there needs to be more of an education for incoming students to know that there are other sources if you don't want to get the book at the bookstore," Stockman said.
But Green said most bookstores have similar budget problems.
"All retail book stores operate on a very tight budget, especially college bookstores, even if they're taxpayer-subsidized, as MU's is," he said.
A few blocks away, at Elm Street Plaza behind Cold Stone Creamery, is another place for students to buy and sell textbooks.
It just opened last week, and it's called Beat the Bookstore.
Scott Runyon, a co-owner of this Beat the Bookstore franchise, said because the store is new to Columbia, he is not able to cite a percentage representing how much more money students are paid for books than at University Bookstore.
But he said the bookstore shouldn't be the students' only option.
"They should have a choice," Runyon said. "Free markets are a good thing."
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