BYU Bookstore Benefits Students
Reference Article: http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/56365
The bookstore this week has implemented a new policy to benefit students: No more returning of books if you found it from a cheaper or better source. The bookstore is using this as a revolutionary new way of marketing. Instead of saying, “If you find our products on sale elsewhere for a better price, we’ll match you,” they’re using the slogan, “If you find the products for a better value elsewhere and you already bought ours, then Ha ha: That’s life! If it doesn’t kill you it makes you STRONGER”. It’s in this manner that they’re benefiting the students.
The BYU Bookstore has a long tradition of teaching students how to deal with life. Before the advent of the internet they taught the children what it is like to be in a small country governed by a dictator, where they only allow you to buy items directly from the government. They taught us that this was the BEST system, because when it only comes from one source, then there’s less need for confusing choices which will only cloud our brain and keep us from doing things more proficiently in the rest of our life. The extra money that they charge when compared with other bookstores is just a small fee that people pay to the Bookstore for rendering this beautiful service unto them. It was a brilliant move and it worked for many a term until the advent of the dreaded Other Sources From Which To Buy Books For Lower Prices.
Then back in the late 90s, the poor students had many different places to choose from, with lower prices, and soon the students started thinking to themselves, “Hey! I could seriously benefit from this other source of books!” But the admirable BYU Bookstore knew that in the long run this would be terrible, and confusing, and would only lead to students doing less well in their classes. After all if you pay more money for an item then you will value it more and use it in a more proficient manner and get more out of it. Soon students were finding books for 75%, 65%, or sometimes even as low as 50% the prices the Bookstore charged. But how were they to get them in time for their classes when often these books were not available until 2 weeks into the semester?
Soon the students came upon the strategy: Buy the books from the bookstore for the first week and return them for full price once the other books came in the mail! And all the students thought that they were happy because they had less stress in their lives and less need to worry about finding extra money to buy enough food to sustain themselves. But oh the Bookstore knew, they just KNEW that even though the students THOUGHT they were happy, they could not truly be happy, because nobody could possibly be happy unless they worked hard in the long run to gain a reward. How could the Bookstore possibly solve the situation ahead of them? How could they possibly bring the students back into the land where, even though they paid more money for resources, they were truly free to think for themselves?
All of a sudden the Bookstore had a brilliant idea: Keep students from being able to return the books for full price so they are forced to choose the BYU Bookstore. This is not a business ploy to bring the bookstore more money, as many may think, but rather as Tom Hirtzel said, in the Daily Universe article, “We’re hopeful the students will understand the new policy is for their benefit”. And of course they do! There’s no way that the Bookstore would be doing this to gain more profit or to cut losses as a business! This is of course a completely altruistic action by them: to benefit the students, to enlighten them, and above all else, to keep them from foolishly wasting their brain power by looking for cheaper sources.
The bookstore this week has implemented a new policy to benefit students: No more returning of books if you found it from a cheaper or better source. The bookstore is using this as a revolutionary new way of marketing. Instead of saying, “If you find our products on sale elsewhere for a better price, we’ll match you,” they’re using the slogan, “If you find the products for a better value elsewhere and you already bought ours, then Ha ha: That’s life! If it doesn’t kill you it makes you STRONGER”. It’s in this manner that they’re benefiting the students.
The BYU Bookstore has a long tradition of teaching students how to deal with life. Before the advent of the internet they taught the children what it is like to be in a small country governed by a dictator, where they only allow you to buy items directly from the government. They taught us that this was the BEST system, because when it only comes from one source, then there’s less need for confusing choices which will only cloud our brain and keep us from doing things more proficiently in the rest of our life. The extra money that they charge when compared with other bookstores is just a small fee that people pay to the Bookstore for rendering this beautiful service unto them. It was a brilliant move and it worked for many a term until the advent of the dreaded Other Sources From Which To Buy Books For Lower Prices.
Then back in the late 90s, the poor students had many different places to choose from, with lower prices, and soon the students started thinking to themselves, “Hey! I could seriously benefit from this other source of books!” But the admirable BYU Bookstore knew that in the long run this would be terrible, and confusing, and would only lead to students doing less well in their classes. After all if you pay more money for an item then you will value it more and use it in a more proficient manner and get more out of it. Soon students were finding books for 75%, 65%, or sometimes even as low as 50% the prices the Bookstore charged. But how were they to get them in time for their classes when often these books were not available until 2 weeks into the semester?
Soon the students came upon the strategy: Buy the books from the bookstore for the first week and return them for full price once the other books came in the mail! And all the students thought that they were happy because they had less stress in their lives and less need to worry about finding extra money to buy enough food to sustain themselves. But oh the Bookstore knew, they just KNEW that even though the students THOUGHT they were happy, they could not truly be happy, because nobody could possibly be happy unless they worked hard in the long run to gain a reward. How could the Bookstore possibly solve the situation ahead of them? How could they possibly bring the students back into the land where, even though they paid more money for resources, they were truly free to think for themselves?
All of a sudden the Bookstore had a brilliant idea: Keep students from being able to return the books for full price so they are forced to choose the BYU Bookstore. This is not a business ploy to bring the bookstore more money, as many may think, but rather as Tom Hirtzel said, in the Daily Universe article, “We’re hopeful the students will understand the new policy is for their benefit”. And of course they do! There’s no way that the Bookstore would be doing this to gain more profit or to cut losses as a business! This is of course a completely altruistic action by them: to benefit the students, to enlighten them, and above all else, to keep them from foolishly wasting their brain power by looking for cheaper sources.
posted by CT at 7:24 PM
4 Comments:
Wow this is the coolest blog ever!
Dear Candid BYU Student
I want to thank you for bringing the good deeds of the BYU bookstore to light. To think that some of us thought that the Bookstore was just doing this in order to benefit themselves. I am both enlightened and humbled.
In the 9/1/05 daily universe, an article was printed entitled “Bookstore Cracks Down.” This article outlines the new bookstore return policy--you can’t return books if you find them elsewhere for cheaper. Concerning this new policy, the bookstore textbook manager, Tim Hirtzel, said, “We’re hopeful the students will understand the new policy is for their benefit.” Hmmm… Keep hoping Tim!
After this inadequate statement, no justification was given as to why students would benefit. Why doesn’t he just say the new policy is for the bookstore’s benefit and not for student’s benefit--no one would argue with that.
To make this article worse, Tim Hirtzel cites the “catch-all” honor code as the reason students should comply. Well, I returned a product to CompUSA when I found it cheaper at Best Buy, and I’m sure Tim Hirtzel has done similar.
I'm not going to follow the dumb policy anyway. Screw them!
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