John Greil
Few students dare enter the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore during a football weekend for fear of getting smothered in a crowd of Shirt-buying fans.
Most students, however, do bear the long lines at this campus location twice a year, but their grumblings are not about the lines and the crowds. Their complaints center around the rising prices of textbooks and the relatively low prices for which the bookstore buys them back, if it buys them back at all. The increasing frustration of Notre Dame students has led them not only to start looking for books elsewhere, but also to creating solutions of their own.
DormBooks.com is one attempt at a solution. The company, a student-run alternative to both the bookstore and online retailers, was created in fall 2006 by current seniors Karol Grzesiak and Andrew Matasic. In the beginning, they served as middlemen between online companies like Amazon.com and 30 or 40 Notre Dame students. In their first semester they bought $15,000 worth of business textbooks.
While there are student-run sites such as Campusbooks.com that match students with virtual classified advertisements, DormBooks sells and buys back textbooks specifically to and from Notre Dame students. Using a smaller markup, they are able to sell books for less than the bookstore and buy them back at higher prices. They also offer $1 next-day delivery to the customer’s dorm room.
“The bookstore has the new priced book to sell you — say it’s $100,” Grzesiak says. “When they buy it back, usually they buy it back for half the price — that’s $50 — up until they reach their quota.” The difference between DormBooks and the bookstore’s buyback program is what happens after this quota.
While the bookstore lowers its price $10 or $20, DormBooks keeps its buyback price constant. “We’ll take that same book, and we’ll offer $50 or $55 across the board, so you can be the first person, or the last person, you’ll get the same price,” Grzesiak says. “And then what the bookstore does, is they turn around and that book they bought for $50, 50 percent, they sell for 75 percent. At DormBooks we’ll sell it for 60, 65 percent.”
One disadvantage of DormBooks is its limited scope. “We only have the funds to do business textbooks,” Grzesiak says, although he is looking to expand the business. Non-business students can still turn to online resources like Amazon.com, many of which offer used books at rates cheaper than the bookstore’s. While online sites may be cheaper, however, they still have the inconvenience of shipping fees and delayed delivery times.
The bookstore circumvents those disadvantages with its on-campus convenience, so many students choose to buy textbooks there for the expediency and immediate satisfaction. Twelve years ago, the university partnered with Follett Higher Education Group to manage all retail operations at the site. The two continue to hold an exclusive and private agreement, and most statistics regarding the sales and profits of the bookstore are not disclosed due to a private contract between Follett and the university.
“Our value proposition is based on the premise that we are here to serve the students — both online and in the store,” Director of Retail Operations Keith Kirkpatrick says. The bookstore also conducts “an annual customer survey that is completed and compiled each fall, with many questions pertaining to the customer experience.” It then adapts to the results of the survey. The survey is not a solution for all unhappy customers, however. “Some things are contractually bound; some things can’t change,” Kirkpatrick says.
Another disadvantage to buying online is that the consumer does not always know exactly what he or she is buying. “We receive our information directly from the faculty members, so students are guaranteed to get the correct course materials for their class,” Kirkpatrick says. “Textbook editions change much more frequently than they have in the past, and students must take special care to ensure that they have the correct textbook. You can often find a book that looks the same but has distinct differences between editions.” The bookstore ensures that the student will receive the correct edition, which is not something online retailers can promise. “The service takes all the guesswork out,” he says.
Kirkpatrick acknowledges that “online sites are certainly here to stay,” and at Notre Dame, DormBooks is one of those competitors. While DormBooks offers services to business students, the bookstore is able to offer every required text at the university. As the competition from online retailers increases, the bookstore will have to battle both local and national competitors for the patronage of the student body.
