Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
As I was writing those notes I realized that here might be a competitor for Amazon in the etextbook market. Barnes & Noble already sells textbooks; it runs 600 college bookstores in the US. It also has an online presence for each bookstore where a student can order books. How difficult could it be to expand the ordering system to include etextbooks?
|
I think B&N has to do this to ensure their own financial viability. In times past (my era) you were limited to what the on campus bookstore had and you had no choice but to pay their prices.
With my daughter in college now, I was please to learn that student's book buying options are about four versions beyond what I experienced. V2 was buying at off-campus bookstores that existed by beating the on-campus bookstore price. V3 was buying online at Amazon and others. V4 I was pleased to discover this year with Chegg.com that 'rents' textbooks to students for the period of the term. So now my daughter buys textbooks in her major and 'rents' the textbooks for electives and other courses that she'll never use again. If B&N doesn't find a way to adapt, there will be tumbleweeds and crickets chirping during fall rush as the only students in the on-campus bookstore are snapping pics of their course books in the B&N bookstore so they can comparison shop at Half.com and Chegg.com.