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Message from the Chair:The Campus Bookstore at Queen's University was founded by engineering students in 1909, to provide students with inexpensive course materials. Having now passed its hundredth year of operation, it is a $10-million corporation that serves all members of the Queen's community. Today, the corporation is directed by a 15-person board of directors, made up of students, faculty, and alumni. We operate with the mission "to provide course materials to students at the lowest possible prices." Every decision that we make is made with that in mind. The most common misconception is that the Bookstore is a money-making operation, profiting from Queen's students. This is wrong. The Campus Bookstore is owned and operated by the members of the Queen's Engineering Society with a not-for-profit mandate stated in our letters patent. The excess revenue generated by the bookstore is returned to students in the form of discounts on new textbooks, which is about 9% on average. This discount off publishers' prices saves Queen's students about $500,000 a year. The other misconception is that large booksellers such as Indigo and Chapters offer textbooks at lower prices. For the most part, the Campus Bookstore has lower prices. When it doesn't, the lower price that large stores offer is usually for a book that they do not own, and can't provide in less than 3-5 weeks - far too much time in a 12-week term. Students often visit the Bookstore from Ottawa and Toronto to buy their books because the prices offered on their campuses are much higher than ours. While students here may not realize it, we are recognized around Canada as a model of how a campus bookstore should be operated. The lean management practices and on-line initiatives have made us one of the lowest-priced, lowest-margin bookstores in the country. Keeping our mandate in mind, the Campus Bookstore encourages students to buy and sell used textbooks. The Bookstore will buy books back from students for up to 50% of the new book price. In addition, students have the option to post an ad for their books on our website (www.campusbookstore.com) which currently has over 3,000 titles. On campus, students may also sell their books through The Used Bookstore, a student service run by the Alma Mater Society. While it may seem that the Bookstore may see the Used Bookstore as competition, this is not true as it furthers our mission by providing books to students at low cost. A major Campus Bookstore initiative that has not yet fully caught on here at Queen's is the textbook review site. At www.reviewmytextbooks.org, students can review textbooks that they have bought, and warn others against buying them. This site is quite popular outside Queen's. In a nutshell, the Campus Bookstore is run for students, by students. We are not-for-profit, and contrary to popular belief, we offer textbooks for cheaper than many other booksellers. While it's normal for students to want books for even cheaper, the Campus Bookstore already does an outstanding job keeping the price of textbooks down, and should be recognized for it. Sincerely, Ryan Low |
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