Throwdown!! (Kinda long, but totally fun - for ME!)

[PepperElf]

yeah cos it's fun watching the crash & burn

[Ben_Who]

Illusion of choice.

There's only one off-campus bookstore that buys back old textbooks near my alma mater, but they seemed kinda hinky. They're even called "College Bookstore" - the on-campus bookstore, by comparison, has no outdoor advertising except a sandwich sign outside the student center, where they're located. I wonder if the expensive signage is to confuse freshmen.

I've never been inside. They ran a couple of full-page ads in the first year they were open, offering the illusion of choice to the captive customer base - why pay $50 for that math book when we carry it as well and have no affiliation with the University? Competition! Capitalism! The American way!

Then the complaints started rolling in. That $50 book at the student center? $75 at the College Bookstore. They'd offer a deal on the cheaper books - a $10 book would be $8 - but those were the loss leaders they'd use to put some huge markups on the most expensive - and crucial - merchandise. So you'd save $5 on your English 101 books and spend $200 more on your computer science books. For a while, the letters page of the student newspaper burst into flames.

It got even better when they tried to sell these books back. That $50 book marked up to $75? $5 back. $1 for the $10 book. The student center bookstore had a policy of not buying back books that weren't sold from there (which was probably smart, as any English major could have easily sold off his entire inventory for more than he paid for it) so if you paid the College Bookstore's insane prices, you'd be getting back pennies.

Over a decade later, the College Bookstore is still there. My guess is that their entire customer base consists of credulous Freshmen. Being a public university means that no one can really stop them from handing out fliers in the parking lot or putting them up on information kiosks.

Love, Who?

[MadMike]

We've decided that this one is worthy of being a War Story. Standard procedure in that case is to close the original thread.