For the last decade, college stores have been paranoid about publishers going behind their backs to deliver electronic content directly to students. Although it’s still not a reality that’s come to pass, it may eventually, and when it does “stores won’t offer much value here. Insofar as they ‘collect’ students and shovel them over to publishers’ websites to purchase content, bookstores will get a small ‘click-through’ but nothing like the margins they enjoy on printed books – not to mention used textbooks,” one college publisher (who preferred to remain anonymous) explained.
The paranoia is understandable given the pressures on independent college stores represented by NACS, who continue to lose ground to large chains like Barnes & Noble and Follett. Because of this, NACS has established a large DC lobbying presence to protect its own interests.
Recently, however, the paranoia got out of hand when NACS sent out a press release accusing publishers of gouging students with book prices. Their website – through a series of FAQs on used books, college textbooks, and “bundles” – echoes the general sentiment of “distrust and frustration” students feel, complaining that college stores are the ones who are called upon to “justify the price differential [between publisher’s textbook prices in the states and abroad] even while they are unsure why the price differential exists.”
The site also vents about how the existence of alternative products in a free market economy should decrease prices in a product category, although college stores’ seemingly selfless offering of used books in order to better serve their students has done no such thing. (Somehow in the shuffle the little aside about how used books are a cash cow for NACS member stores got left out).
With NACS finding it necessary to announce that they are working with publishers to address these issues “in appropriate and legal ways,” you can bet that this year’s CAMEX will be more than just a merchandising trade show – though as one publisher tells us from the convention floor, “The blood isn’t running down the aisles, yet.”
PT thanks Jim Lichtenberg’s investigative eye for helping to track down the turmoil.
