University of Virginia Library

Publishers Determine
Prices In Bookstore

By Debbie Kroner

"Every book we sell here is by
publisher's price. If it's not, there's been a
mistake." So says John Williams, who is the
owner of Anderson's Book Store. There
are people who find this statement hard
to believe.

A law book, "Legal Research in a
Nutshell," is being sold for four dollars.
Printed on the back of this soft covered
book is the statement "All Nutshells
$3.50 at law school bookstores." On the
surface, this seems to be a direct
contradiction to Mr. Williams' assertion
that Anderson's sells books at publisher's
price.

Publisher's Invoice

When questioned on this text, Mr. Williams
unearthed the publisher's invoice which stated,
in computer-black ink, that the books were sold
to the bookstore at four dollars per book. The
discrepancy between what is printed on the
book and what is printed on the invoice
indicates, to Mr. Williams, that the publisher
decided to raise the prices after the book was
sent to press.

It has been noted by many students that
tags have been glued-over prices that were
originally printed on books. Rarely has it been
known that the price has been reduced.
Oftentimes, the new price constitutes a ten to
twenty-five per cent increase over the original
cost of the book.

Not Responsible

According to Mr. Williams, Anderson's is not
responsible for the glued-over prices. Before
books leave a publishing plant, he asserts, the
labels are affixed and the new price is the one
that is used in billing the book dealer.

Two years ago, a University investigation
concluded that there are basic requirements
that must be met in order to have a student
discount set-up work. Mr. Williams commented
that the first prerequisite is that there be a
$300,000 minimum working capital. Secondly,
a minimum of 25,000 students should be
enrolled at the University. The University does
not meet the enrollment requirement.

Monopoly

The question of monopoly existing at a state
operated university has been raised by many of
the students. An example of the existence of
such a monopoly is in the area of law books.
Anderson's is the only bookstore that sells law
texts. Mr. Williams feels that the reason for this
is that the other bookstores "probably don't
want to sell these books." Whether the other
bookstores don't want to sell the texts or that
they aren't able to sell the books is open to
discussion.

Book Exchange

One possible way to divert some of the
money that helps sustain the Charlottesville
bookstores some students have suggested would
be to operate a University-sponsored book
exchange. Such a system works successfully at
other universities. One way would be for a
five-cent charge to be placed on each book that
a student wishes to sell through the exchange.

Another way to alleviate the problem,
students have suggested, would be for the
professors to come to some sort of agreement
on the texts used in their courses. This could be
done in some but not all courses. It would seem
that texts used in Math and science courses
could be universalized. By so doing, a student
could ll his used books, rather than discover
that the nine dollar book he possesses, one that
he really doesn't want to keep, is not going to
be used in the next semester's courses.