Letters to the Editor

A role beyond advertisement

I found Larissa Pahomov’s Opinions piece “A commercial to go with your books: advertising undercover” in the 12.03.04 issue of The Miscellany News interesting and thought provoking. Who would have thought that a little pin would generate so much interest? I do take issue with some of your comments and assumptions.

You are correct that we wish to avoid being associated with Barnes & Noble, Inc., and prefer to refer to ourselves as “your campus bookstore.” The reason for this is because the College’s contract is not with Barnes & Noble, Inc, but with Barnes & Noble College Bookstores. This difference is more than semantics. BNCB, as we refer to it, is a separate corporation from B&N, Inc. with its own headquarters in New Jersey and its own management and buyers. We do use many B&N resources, all of which we pay for.

We use the motto “your campus bookstore” because this is the role we see ourselves playing. Each of the over 500 college bookstores in the BNCB family is different and unique. This is especially true at Vassar not only because it is a residential college but also because of the makeup of the store’s staff. Of our seven full-time employees, five are longtime Vassar people with a total of over 74 years of service. We carry many products that other stores don’t. Through our Suggestion Box and the Bookstore Advisory Committee (made up of students, faculty and staff), we look for ways to improve our product selection and our service.

I got a kick out of your terms “devious marketing” and “campaign to manipulate them,” but I am puzzled by your comment that we are soliciting contrary to College policy. When I look around the campus I see much more overt soliciting than any advertising that the bookstore does. Through campus wide emails, the College solicits for those vendors that appear in the College Center and for local community businesses which accept the “V Card.” More solicitations can be found around Main in the form of flyers and posters for local businesses.

I see the bookstore’s buyback program as a service that we provide in response to the many student requests we have received over the past few years. If we are soliciting anything here it is for you to consider selling back your books and selling them back to us! We really do want to pay you more for your used books. Last fall we paid out over $29,645 to students and increased our inventory of used books by 20 percent. This in turn saved students over $43,850 on their fall textbook purchases. We make a concerted effort to get orders for the next semester as early as possible. This allows us to give students the best price possible, up to 50 percent of the original price paid. Consequently, when students come to buy books for the new semester, we can offer them a good selection of used books, often in better condition than if we had to buy them from our supplier. If a book isn’t being used the next semester, we can usually buy it back on behalf of that same supplier although at a lower price. Students are under no obligation to sell books back to us. We tell them the price. The decision is theirs. What we hope is that students will put unwanted books back into circulation. Recycling is a win-win situation.

As for the unsettling image of “advertising in the school store” creeping “out of its basement lair”, (think Tolkien’s dragon, Smaug), OUCH! Well, we are more involved with campus life than you may be aware. We provide books and/or staff for many on-campus author events. We encourage departments to let us know who is visiting so we can stock their book and do a book signing. Book signings are great for the authors, the students, and the community. There is something special about an autographed copy of a favorite book; I treasure my 40-year old signed copy of Lord of the Flies. Every time we do an event, it is an advertisement for the bookstore.

We provide financial support to campus groups. Through the sale of a book and T-shirt we raised $440 for Community Works; matching funds and a direct donation added another $420, and our parent company donated another $500 for a grand total of $1,360. For campus groups, we sell the Yearbook, Founder’s Day items, and CDs by campus music groups. Other ways we are part of the Vassar community? One of our employees is involved with the planning for the Empire State Games, some of which will be held at Vassar this summer. We have created employment positions for BOCES students in the store. They learn job skills, collect a salary, and develop a sense of pride and responsibility through holding a job.

So thank you for your article. It made me think about the bookstore and its role in the community in a more focused manner than I have before. Keep asking questions, a trait for which Vassar students are known, and keep writing.

—Chip Edmonston, Vassar College Bookstore Assistant Manager