JOHNNIE SPANRAFT
The Internet continues to push some traditional services into extinction. Travel agencies may disappear due to the large savings one can find on the Internet when booking hotels and airline tickets. Telephone companies may feel a pinch in their profits when more and more people start making unlimited long distance calls to family and friends over their computer.
One long standing retail store might also one day find itself closing its doors due to the Internet: the IVCC bookstore. Allow me to explain why.
I originally purchased my books for the spring semester at the IVCC bookstore. As usual, there were not any used books to buy for my classes, so I had to buy new books. I also knew that some of the books would not be bought back because the material was going to be outdated next fall and new editions of the textbooks would be required. I accepted my fate as I shelled out $172.80 for four paperback texts.
After seething over the fact that I spent that much money on only four books, paperback nonetheless, I got curious to see how much I would have saved if I had ordered my books online. After extensive research, I found that I could have saved a lot.
Textbooks.com offered the best savings. I found three of my books at a large savings. Only one of my four was not much of a savings, only about $1. One of the books that I had paid $45.75 for new in the IVCC bookstore only cost $24.30 used at Textbooks.com.
Textbooks.com gave me 30 days to return my books for a full refund if I was not satisfied and also guaranteed to buy back my books (for less) when I was finished with them.
I hurried to bring my books back to the IVCC bookstore in order to meet their arbitrary "textbooks must be returned within 10 days after the class starts if you want a full refund or else you have to wait in a long line at the end of the semester and be told that you are only going to receive $10 for a $40 book that you never used, if we bother to buy the book back at all; if not you will receive nothing and like it" return policy.
I received a full refund of $127 for the three books that I returned. I then ordered the same exact books from Textbooks.com for $88.50 including shipping. That is a savings of $38.50. I now had enough money to buy a pair of warm boots for the three-mile hike from the parking lot to the classroom. I received my books a few days later. For used books, all three were in excellent condition.
There are many places on the Internet to buy textbooks besides Textbooks.com. Amazon.com, Varsitybooks.com, and Ecampus.com all offer savings on textbooks. I just had the best luck with Textbooks.com.
I do not want to put the student workers in the bookstore out of a job. I only want to inform the students here that they do not have to buy their textbooks at one store and pay their price. Thanks to the Internet, we now have a choice of where we spend our money.
If enough students start spending their money more wisely, the IVCC bookstore may figure out that they now have competition and lower their prices or face extinction due to the Internet.