Tuesday September 4, 2001

An hour later and 300 bones in the hole, we all gloomily came out of the bookstore. Students, campuswide, felt cheated, unfairly broke and especially sore from carrying heavy-duty plastic bags around all the construction detours.

We felt ripped off. After having to pay tuition and rent, we now had to dish out for textbooks and ungodly amounts of class notes. It's a ton of money for objects just made out of paper.

Unfortunately, the other day my backpack weighed some 30 pounds. All right, I might be one of those dorks who takes her organic chemistry book to discussion session, but that is beside the point. Rather, do you realize the value of thirty pounds of books?

I was a walking target to get mugged. No, I wasn't carrying a cell phone, pager, CD player, or a three-pound gold chain when I trekked across campus.

But, that was about what I was worth.

It was then I decided it was about time to do a little of my own research. After following the controversy regarding the UA enforcing a policy requiring all professors and TA's to submit a book list to the ASUA bookstore, I decided to find out the truth on how much we were really being ripped off.

Sure, it seemed the bookstore was as pure of a monopoly as they come.

The evidence appeared to be all there. There existed an unseen pressure for all 40,000 students to purchase their books at the same store - and moreover, charge an arm and a leg that we just don't have for them.

Last week I needed one more book titled, "Environmental Law Handbook: 16th Edition." Not the 15th that was going for approximately $40. No, I needed the bright blue, fresh-off-the-presses edition. I took a deep breath and plunged into the mess at the Arizona Bookstore. I was for sure not going to support the UA and go to the UofA bookstore - no way.

It turned out to be $99 - the same price as at the campus bookstore. "Hummm," I muttered in a Sherlock Holmes type of way.

I did some homework on what the UA's biggest textbook competitors charge for the same book. I looked the same book up online at Barnes and Noble, Borders, ecampus.com, booksamillion.com, fatbrain.com and the snake of all online stores, amazon.com.

Every one of them sells it for $99, plus shipping and handling. Half of them didn't even have the book available.

Well, that was interesting. Nowhere did I find a better deal. So, I decided to investigate some of Tucson's local bookstores to see what I could find out.

My first attempt to uncover the textbook conspiracy of the decade was at the Book Warehouse, 5120 S. Julian Drive. I spoke to a very nice gentleman who told me that it didn't carry UA textbooks except when it got a clearance price on older editions. If you were lucky, you could find a book half-off there. That's if you didn't need edition number 16.

My next stab was talking with an employee at Mostly Books, 6208 E. Speedway Blvd. She told me that it was unable to get a course list in time to make ordering books worthwhile. Sure, she admitted that the university had an edge on the textbook market, but then again, that wasn't even its specialty.

The adventure heated up when I spoke to a woman from Scholar's Bookstore, 2644 E. Speedway Blvd. I was amazed to find out that it did indeed carry UA textbooks, but its stock came only from what previous students had sold back. They did pay to get a UA course book list, yet that wasn't why its business was booming.

Rather, it was because students have been choosing to sell their books back to an independent bookstore.

So, basically I learned two things: First, the university isn't out to screw us on textbooks. Folks, it is unfortunately just what they cost. And second, the UofA Bookstore does a damn fine job in running an efficient and well-stocked store - and they do it all for us. The UA policy isn't out to prey on independent bookstores. Barnes and Noble has that job down too well.

I support locally owned bookstores whenever I can. Students and professors can too. All the stores I spoke with are more than happy to special order any textbook. It is not the university's fault if you are too lazy to do so.

And plus, there are bigger evils out there. Instead of punching your credit card into amazon.com, buy your books local - including at the UofA Bookstore.