Bookstore prices not marked up, official says

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat

Frank Farias, director of the UA Associated Students Bookstore, said allegations that the store's prices are marked up compared to its competitors' is untrue.

"There is a self-perpetuating perception that the prices are higher here," Farias said. "The perception is not the reality."

While some texts offered by large bookstores are priced close to ASUA Bookstore prices, others can be found for less at commercial chain stores.

"In some cases we're higher, but in a lot of cases, we're lower," Farias said.

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, - required reading for a UA freshman composition course - is sold at both Barnes and Noble Booksellers and the ASUA bookstore for the publisher's suggested price of $10.

But students taking Accounting 200 will shell out $85.50 at the ASUA bookstore, compared to $72.75 at Barnes and Noble.

Farias said although the ASUA bookstore may occasionally hit students a little harder in the pocketbook, the prices "don't warrant looking all over town."

Scott Allen, assistant manager of merchandising at Barnes and Noble, 5480 E. Broadway Blvd., said students often come in looking for textbooks.

Allen said if the book a student is looking for is not on the shelves, the store will special order it and then sell it at cost.

"We don't make any profit off that type of book," he said.

A required text for a UA business ethics class, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, is only available in the ASUA bookstore in its hardback edition, which costs $25. Barnes and Noble carries the same version at the same publisher price but sells the book for a promotional 10 percent off, making the actual selling price $22.50.

Barnes and Noble also offers the same book in paperback for $13 - an option that the ASUA Bookstore does not provide.

The UA prices are sometimes higher than those of a large retail bookstore because the store ensures every required text is on the shelves, Farias said. He added that the large bookstores charge 7 percent state sales tax on textbooks, whereas the ASUA Bookstore charges 5 percent.

"Unlike a lot of other businesses, the books are being directed at you," Farias said. "This is your campus store - we are basically limited to selling to students."

He said the ASUA Bookstore is a student service designed for student convenience. The financially self-sustaining bookstore has been managed and operated by student government since the late 1930s.

ASUA Bookstore profits fund 80 percent of student government costs - $375,000 for fiscal year 1998 from the bookstore's proceeds. Another $50,000 in annual profits subsidizes the cost of commencement activities.

The medical scholarship program receives $25,000 per year, and an additional $125,000 each year goes to textbook scholarships.

Other ASUA Bookstore-funded organizations include intercollegiate athletics, the Bobcats student organization and campus cultural centers.

Nursing sophomore Jessica Mang said her first priority when buying books is to save money.

"I think it's important that these organizations receive funding," Mang said, "But if a book is sold for a lower price somewhere else, that's where I'm going to get it."

Sarah A. Perry can be reached via e-mail at Sarah.A.Perry@wildcat.arizona.edu.