COMMENTARY: Are the UHCL bookstore prices costing it customers?
The University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) bookstore is that place one passes to get to the staircases or the Patio Café, depending on which direction one is coming from. The room with fun decorated windows to peek into and see the newest UHCL merchandise.
For example, there is this super cute baseball hat that would look so good on those days where our hair just is not having it. The excitement builds for a new hat, but a quick glance at the price tag reads $22. This hat is not a specific name brand, just a simple ball cap with the UHCL logo printed on it.
A $22 Nike branded hat is not a bad price for any sports fan, but a non-name brand hat for the same price? The UHCL campus bookstore raises its specific prices like any other business, but for a group of students who are busy paying tuition, graduation and housing fees, it can be hard to represent UHCL with these inflated prices.
Likewise, there is nothing different about the store’s notebooks other than the added UHCL logo. Are we paying overpriced prices for underpriced goods? For the quality of some of the merchandise at the bookstore, the UHCL branded merchandise and most of the convenience goods and school supplies are overpriced.
In a comparison study, the Texas A&M University store website sells an Adidas branded ball cap with the university’s logo for as low as $16. So why is UHCL charging $6 more for a lesser quality item? Similarly, Sam Houston State University, which is around the same size as UHCL, sells a Nike branded cap with their logo for $24, while UHCL carries a generic brand for $22.
The over-priced items reach far past school spirit merchandise. In the bookstore, there are school supplies and textbooks surrounding the clothing, and most of those prices are inflated as well.
Both the UHCL and the UH bookstores have the same markup prices. This is because Follett, who operates these stores, is a campus bookstore chain. While Follett may not be able to purchase logo items in bulk, it surely purchases convenience goods and standard school supplies in bulk. So why aren’t these discounted costs passed on to students?
For a pack of two Pilot G2 Gel pens at Walmart, the price is $2.92. For the same pack of pens in the UHCL bookstore, the price is $3.99. That is over a $1 difference, which may not seem like that big of a deal, but the price differences add up. A single one-inch binder from Walmart is $5, while on the UHCL bookstore website, a pack of three one-inch binders is available for $34.99. That is charging over double per binder.
Some of the biggest price markups happen on everyday essentials such as medication or bandages. The bookstore charges $6.49 for a 24 count pack of Advil. This averaged to about $0.27 per tablet. At Walmart, they sell the same pack of Advil for $3.98. The average cost for each tablet here is $0.17. That is about a 37% increase in price for an individual tablet.
The main items most students purchase from the bookstore are scantrons and textbooks only as a last resort. Students mostly shop for cheaper textbooks online before purchasing at the bookstore. A brand new theory of performance textbook at the bookstore sells for $86 while on Amazon the same textbook goes for $77. In a classroom of ten students, none of them used the bookstore to purchase their textbooks.
The UHCL bookstore is a place for emergencies and last-minute needs. It is a one-stop-shop for in-between class snacks and average goods, just at a higher price. Except that the bookstore no longer sells snacks, so they lost that positive. One of the benefits that can be said of the store is the location. For students who live on campus or cannot afford online shipping, the bookstore is their best option. They can purchase emergency goods right after a class and not have to worry about finding a ride or bus route to the nearest convenience store.
Despite its convenience, the UHCL bookstore is many student’s last option for purchasing textbooks, school supplies, and other common items. The strongest draw to the store is for scantrons for testing, but now most professors provide the answer sheets for the students themselves. So unless there is an emergency or urgent need, sticking to Amazon or Walmart will save students wallets some extra dollars that can be put towards our graduation fees.
Now if there will just be a decent sale to buy that UHCL hat in the window to show school spirit and later serve as memorabilia.
Follett pays a commission to the university to be in that excellent location and has to pay a large staff to keep that store stocked and staffed. Unfortunately, when students stop buying textbooks at their local on campus bookstore the store can no longer pass discounts -like on that hat- to you. You need to support your local store, not Amazon or Walmart- that’s the fastest way to not having that store for much longer. It may be a chain but it’s a business that needs to show a profit to stay in business. Follett does not make the book prices, publishers do. It takes a lot of time and money to get those books on the store shelf- shipping costs, staff hours- only for a student to buy the book at Amazon. The store is required to have that book on the shelf for you but when it’s not purchased the store ends up paying for it to be shipped back after all the work of getting it there. That’s a lot of money wasted. Talk to the manager- I’m sure he/she can explain how it all works and how you can help support your local store.