Wine glasses, bigfoot socks, bucket hats, fleece jackets, backpacks, water bottles, Tylenol,
But what is the main item that the on-campus bookstore sells? Books. Very expensive books. Because of these high textbook prices, the Maverick Store has fallen under scrutiny from students around campus.
“170 dollars for a textbook? No thank you. I can barely afford my Starbucks let alone a book that I’ll probably open three, maybe four times this whole year. It’s ridiculous,” Ben Tuka, a Colorado Mesa University (CMU) freshman told The Criterion earlier this week.
And Ben isn’t alone. CMU sophomore Zoe Ryan-Terra had this to say about the Maverick Store’s inflated textbook prices. “The bookstore’s prices are just way too high. I feel like they exploit college students because they know that we need these books to pass our classes which helps us towards our specific major, so they increase the price by way too much.”
However, when asked to respond to these criticisms, the management at the Maverick Store seemed to see things differently than the student body.
“I don’t think a lot of students understand that, while we are here to serve the students, we really aren’t funded by outside parties like other places are,” Maverick Store management told The Criterion. “We’re an independent store, we’re self-funded and owned by the university; so we don’t source from any other book stores. We purchase directly from the publishers and are given a price that we have to sell at.”
In regards to their high textbook prices, the management at the Maverick Store argued that “… we can’t lower the price much because we have wages to pay, rent, electricity and scholarships to fund. The publishers basically set the price. We have some control over our textbook prices, but we need to cover our other costs.”
Nonetheless, the Maverick Store has fallen under lots of scrutiny from CMU students for their inflated prices. Consequently, many students have gone across the street to purchase cheaper textbooks at Textbook Brokers, a chain store not affiliated with CMU.
“Unlike our competition down the street (Textbook Brokers) we aren’t a chain store. They have upwards of 70 stores across the U.S., and some of their stores may serve a market of 40,000 students, whereas we have one store with a market of 10,000 students. So just like anything with business, the more you’re buying, the more negotiation power you have with affecting the prices you pay. We just don’t have much room to alter our prices,” the Maverick Store manager stated.
The overpriced textbooks at the Maverick Store definitely make Textbook Brokers a more appealing option, especially for college students with a limited income. However, the Maverick Store offers other merchandise that have students coming back time and time again.
“Sure, the Maverick store can be frustrating at times, especially being that a lot of their items are overpriced,” Delaney Letts, a senior at CMU told The Criterion in an interview. “But that won’t stop me from making purchases there. I love CMU and get all my Mav gear at the Maverick Store, and so I’ll continue making purchases there.”
Despite the Maverick Store failing to compete with its rivals (Textbook Brokers) prices, the store appeals to a wider market, as it sells all sorts of Maverick merchandise, technology, school supplies and other items that Textbook Brokers do not.
