By the end of April, Northwestern students will have a new option for buying and selling textbooks.
Beck’s Books, a Chicago-based bookseller, will open later this month at 716 Clark St., the former location of Printable Promotions. Beck’s sells textbooks at eight other Chicago-area universities and colleges, including Loyola University Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University.
“We thought there was a need in that market for possibly another bookseller,” said John Mazar, general manager at Beck’s Loyola-Lake Shore Campus store. “We had for the last 10 years thought about Northwestern, but there was another off-campus bookstore.”
Student Book Exchange, which sold textbooks in Evanston for 64 years, closed its doors in 2002.
Beck’s sells new and used textbooks and buys books back from students. Students can receive up to 50 percent on some book buybacks, Mazar said.
The company will solicit faculty members and departments to share textbook information, “even if they’re currently doing business with the university store,” Mazar said.
“If it’s a private institution, they don’t have to tell you what books they want to use like a state or public institution does,” Mazar said. “That will be a little more challenging, but faculty have the choice to give the student a choice to shop somewhere other than the university store.”
Norris is one of at least 400 college and university bookstores owned by Barnes & Noble.
McCormick sophomore Jay Zeschin said he turned to Amazon.com to buy textbooks after becoming frustrated with mislabeled books and the refund policy at Norris.
“I decided I wasn’t going to deal with (Norris) anymore,” Zeschin said.
Zeschin said he will definitely compare prices at Beck’s.
Norris textbook manager Charles DePondt said Monday evening he could not yet comment on Beck’s opening.
Beck’s has an advantage because it is locally-owned and can more easily respond to residents’ and students’ needs, said history lecturer Jeff Rice.
Rice used to own the bookstore Great Expectations, 911 Foster St., which sold textbooks and academic titles until its doors closed in September 2001. He now orders his textbooks through Comix Revolution, 606 Davis St., he said.
“I welcome (Beck’s) to the community and hope they can provide a really interesting alternative to Barnes & Noble,” Rice said.
But the store could be “truly spectacular” if it goes beyond just selling textbooks and offers harder-to-find academic titles, he added.
“We’re excited about it,” Mazar said. “Northwestern’s a Big Ten school, and Evanston has a great college atmosphere.”
Students can reserve textbooks and check buy-back prices at www.becksbooks.com.
Reach Beth Murtagh at [email protected].
