Although the lines to buy textbooks at the Norris Bookstore still are long, students and store managers say the Spring Quarter book-buying rush has gone smoothly compared with past quarters.
With the closing of Student Book Exchange over the summer, the Norris bookstore has maintained a virtual monopoly on campus book sales. The overwhelming amount of course materials staffers had to organize at the beginning of Fall and Winter quarters led to ordering glitches and caused delays for students who needed to buy books.
But Ann Fraley, regional manager of the company that oversees bookstore operations at Norris, said officials made changes to improve efficiency and ensure that past problems wouldn’t be repeated. The bookstore hired another full-time employee to help with customer service, and four cash registers and an extra exit on the lower level of the bookstore also have been added.
“Having another full-time person in charge of customer service helps when the lines are long and it’s busy and rushed,” Fraley said. “But honestly, for every manager here the focus is customer service.”
Some students at Norris on Tuesday said that they aren’t having much trouble with getting the books they need.
Fraley said the process of ordering books has been more organized this quarter. Because Winter Quarter starts immediately after the holidays, it is more difficult to process book orders as publishers and professors aren’t available.
“This quarter has been easier because everyone seems to be more available on campus,” she said.
Fraley added that there have been no complaints from students and faculty so far.
“It wouldn’t be honest to say there’s never complaints because of course when you’re doing business with so many titles, sometimes there is an issue, but we hope that we resolve it very quickly,” she said.
Despite complaints about prices, students seem to agree that service at the bookstore has improved.
“I thought service was better this quarter because it wasn’t that crowded when I went in and people were actually available to help you,” said Angela Chiong, a Weinberg senior. “I hadn’t noticed that in the past.”
But other students expressed the need for a competing bookstore to drive down Norris’ prices.
“The fact that we only have one outlet (for books) on campus that is readily available is ridiculous,” said Aysha Chowdhry, a Weinberg junior. “Any other school you go to, there are a lot of bookstores.”
But Fraley said the perception that books at Norris are overpriced is wrong.
“With SBX closing, some students had the perception that we would raise our prices, but we did no such thing,” she said. “There’s not been (any adjustments) and there couldn’t be because of our contract with the university.”
Fraley said publishers set the price of books. The bookstore adheres to a set profit margin each quarter which is based on a contract with the university.
Still, many students also have turned to the Internet sites in their search for cheaper books.
“It would be good if another bookstore opened up because then there would be competition,” Chiong said. “But there are so many online sources that are good also, so it doesn’t make a huge difference.”
