Textbooks costly but vital
The Michigan Daily-Thursday, September 6, 1979-Page 11JA
By ALAN FANGER
To survive in this world, everyone
must obtain food, shelter, clothing, and
rest.
If you're a University student, add a
fifth item to that list-books. And just
as the purchase of food, clothing, and
shelter is a task of utmost importance,
so is that first purchase of books and
supplies every University student
:makes, usually within a few days after
their arrival in Ann Arbor.
Those seemingly harmless objects
-constitute a potent influence on one's
existence in Ann Arbor. Regular atten-
dance and vigorous note-taking are
usually'insufficient to swiftly guide the
aspiring doctor, lawyer, or engineer
through several years of intensive
career training-instructors often
bombard their students with .endless
amounts of outside reading, and the
more risque sorts who attempt to avoid
it often find themselves searching for
:ways to crawl out of the academic pit.
FACED WITH the task of perusing
the many hardbacks and paperbacks,
buying books becomes an important
event, one which is rarely taken lightly.
Three campus-area stores comprise
the bulk of the textbook market. Follet-
ts, at State Street and North University,
'Ulrich's, at South University and East
University, and the University Cellar in
the basement of the Michigan Union all
carry course books and supplies.
; But the typical student is drawn to
bookstores by obligation, not choice,
according to Cellar manager Tom Ott.
He says the staff of the student-
controlled outlet places its emphasis on
getting students to purchase course
books.
IN THEIR effort to attract the large
market of book buyers, each store tacks
a discount on to most of the books they
sell. Folletts manager Richard Am-
merman said his store takes five per
cent off the price of new books and 25
per cent off old copies.
"We try to get as many used books as
possible," said the Cellar's Ott, whose
store operates on the same discount
system. "As new textbook prices go up,
the more used books we have, the
greater the absolute savings."
That type of marketing philosophy
has paid off for the Cellar, whose share
of the market, according to officials at
each store, is nearly 60 per cent.
BUT PRICING is not the only route
the Cellar has traveled to market suc-
cess. Its location near several large
residence halls and full-fledged adver-
tising campaigns have apparently
speeded its drive to dominance.
"We have a hard time getting the
freshmen," said Ulrich's general
manager Tom Musser. "When they
come here for orientation, they get
more exposed to the State Street side of
town. The groups are usually told about
the Cellar.
"We get more of the upperclassmen,"
he continued. "Most of the off-campus
housing is in this area. But if we can get
anyone into the store, I think we can
keep them."
EACH STORE has developed its own
method of conducting the book selection
process. Follett's places its books on
shelves according to divisions and
course number, the Cellar normally
lumps related fields ("hard" sciences,
"soft" sciences) together, and Ulrich's
operates with a "clerk" system, in
which the buyer simply hands a list of
books to an employe who picks them out
from among several racks.
"Since we have a lot of reference tex-
ts, and such a limited amount of space,
we went to this system, and I think it's a
lot smoother than the others," Musser
said.
Book buying in an expensive process.
Textbooks, depending on the retailer,
usually run between $12 and $20, while
supplementary paperbacks, lab
manuals, study guides, and other text
references most often fall in the $5 to
$12 range. It is not uncommon to dole
out more than $100 for books in a single
trip to one of the stores.
BY MOVING to the selling side of the
market, one can defray the costs of the
original purchases. All three outlets
buy back used books from their owners,
although the asking price for most any
book is usually less than one-half
the price at which it was originally
bought.
Books aren't the only bookstore items
that are attractive to buyers.
The name "bookstore" fails to cap-
ture the full purpose these businesses
serve. Ulrich's beckons the art lover to
decorate his or her room with the many
posters and lithographs which hang on
the walls and from the ceilings;
Follett's arouses Wolverine patriots
with an awesome array of Michigan
buttons and bumper stickers; the
Cellar racks contains many different
types of memo boards and toiletries. All
three stores fill their shelves with the
latest and greatest of the best-seller
list.
Selected book prices
Course
Econ.
271
French
101, 102
Journalism
202
Math
115, 116, 215
Philosophy
201
Political
Science
160
Speech
100
Author,
Title
Davidson,
Fundamentals of
Accounting
Follett's
Fanelli,
Aulourd'hui
Nelson & Teeter,
Law of Mass
Communications
Thomas,
Calculus
Copi,
intro. to Logic
Organski,
World Politics
Ehninger, et al
Principles and
Types of Speech
Communication
$13.25
$15.20
$18.95
unavailable
$12.30
$ 9.98
Ulrich's
$17.45
$13.25
$16.20
$20.95
$14.20
University
Collar
$16.10
$13.25
$15.20
$20.85
$14.25
Daily Photo by LISA KLAUSNER
A STUDENT EMERGES with more than she can handle from the Univer-
sity Cellar, one of the three major retailers handling textbooks in the
campus area.
Iy
THE CRACKED CRABw
$12.95 unavailable
$10.50
$ 9.95
Campus labor groups push for
settlements, official recognition
O
rp qE
r" - -''
i i
SEAIFOOD
SPECIALTIES
COMPLETE BAR FACILITIES
f _\
(!
By PATRICIA HAGEN
A confusing array of acronyms label the various groups
of campus workers. IWW, GEO, OCC, AFSCME, UMMRA,
HOA, MNA-these organizations represent the thousands of
people who attend to the complex day-to-day details that
keep the University functioning.
While some of these groups are long-established locals,
other associations are not recognized as unions by the
University. The UMMRA, OCC, and GEO are attempting to
win the authority to represent a segment of University em-
ployees at the bargaining table.
IN EFFORTS to draw up a contract for the newest labor
imion on campus, negotiations between the Board of Direc-
tors and the employees of the University Cellar bookstore
dragged on through the summer. The 70 employees in the
store-located in the basement of the Michigan Union-have
been represented by the Industrial Workers of the World
Local 660.
Negotiations have been hindered from the start by a basic
disagreement about store structure. The employees contend
the store has been, and should continue to be, run collectively
with the operational decisions made by the employees in
each department. They want a contractual guarantee of such
input.
Representatives for both sides say they would like to
reach a settlement as soon as possible, but both agree a set-
tlement is unlikely before the start of fall term.
See TAs, Page 17 1
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