Bookstores prepare for fall purchases

By Luis Jiménez/Summer Reporter HERE'S YOUR CHANGE: LaToya McFarland, a senior in School of Liberal Arts, purchases a book from University Book Store.

By Morgan Conklin
Summer Reporter

When students return to campus in the fall, the last thing they will want to do is foot the bill for textbooks that many of them will fail to ever use. However, books are useful in class and to do homework and two bookstores are here to assist students as they begin their quest for knowledge.

University Book Store, with locations on State Street, and Follett’s Bookstores, located in Purdue West and on Northwestern Avenue, encourage students to reserve their books prior to coming to Purdue in August.

To do this, the bookstores have set up an online registration where students can select the classes they are taking and the books for those courses will automatically be reserved for the student to pick up before classes start. The Web sites also allow students to prepay for their orders, thus eliminating the need to stand in the seemingly endless lines.

If a student chooses to buy their books at the store, Terry Kunstman, text department manager for Follett’s, suggests they look for used books. She said students can save money with the used books, and if they go early, they may be able to find books that appear to be new.

To accommodate the rush of students that choose not to reserve and prepay for their books, Follett’s will be changing their normal hours the Friday before classes begin. Instead of being open until 9 p.m., they will be open 24 hours a day until the Monday after the first day of class.

University Book Store will also be straying from their normal routine. Tom Frey, store manager for UBS, said they have 28 registers open so the line never exceeds four or five people.

So what do you do if you have spent the average of $400 on books and you decide that you want to switch your major? Students are given a grace period at the bookstores when they can return their books for a full refund. Follett’s accepts books for return, with a receipt, for seven days after the purchase is made.

However, if you drop a class and being in your revised schedule, Follett’s will give you a full refund if it is by Purdue’s "last day to drop a class" date.

Matt Popovich, a text department cashier for UBS, and a senior in the School of Liberal Arts, said the one thing new students have to understand when they come to buy books is that it will be expensive. However, students who try to barter the price of books won’t get anywhere because it is not allowed. He said the high price of books is just another part of the college experience.

**I WANT A BOX THAT HAS THE WEBSITES FOR THE TWO BOOKSTORES!!!

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Purdue Exponent 2001