Mr. Spanraft stated that the IVCC Bookstore is unaware of competition from on-line textbook companies. If that was true, I doubt we would have partnered with efollett.com to give students a way to buy their textbooks on-line. When you purchase textbooks through efollett.com, you are actually buying them from the bookstore. Bookstore profits go into the college education fund which directly benefits students.

If you choose to be a savvy consumer and purchase your textbooks at the best price, I can help you do that without spending hours on your computer: Go to vivasmart.com. This site pulls textbook information from the major on-line sites.

You can search for textbooks by title, author, or ISBN. The site will display a list of titles with the prices that on-line retailers are listing. To compare my prices to theirs, I took two classes (due to limited space) with high enrollment at IVCC and put them through the vivasmart database.

1) PSY 1000: Introduction to Psychology by Kalat, ISBN 0534355781

IVCC Bookstore - $51.50 used ($54.71 with tax)

Borders.com - $52.00 used plus $3.95 shipping = $55.95

Bigwords.com - $56.96 used

Classbook.com - $57.86 used

2) SPH 1001: Mastering Public Speaking by Grice, ISBN 0205270921

IVCC Bookstore - $33.00 used ($35.06 with tax)

Bigwords.com - $32.43 used

Classbks.com - $33.45 used plus $4.95 shipping = $38.40

Textbook.com - $36.00 used plus $4.95 shipping = $40.95

The three sites listed above under the IVCC Bookstore are the three cheapest chosen by vivasmart.com as of 2/18/00. Check out the "Buyer Beware" notation that lets you read about student experiences with on-line retailers.

Why am I sharing vivasmart.com with you? Because I believe that as illustrated above, the IVCC Bookstore will beat or come close to on-line company prices. When you need to exchange or replace a defective book, the IVCC Bookstore is there to help you. Yes, we have a refund policy. That refund policy coincides with the drop policy. The reason is no more complicated than that.

When searching for the best prices, use correct information and remember shipping costs so that you REALLY ARE getting the best deal.

Lauren Sandberg

Bookstore Manager