Titles Bookstore offers reduced prices on textbooks

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/statsbooks.jpg” caption=”Students can save money by purchasing used textbooks. Photo by Susan Bubak.”]Several Canadian publishers have announced price reductions on their textbooks to bring Canadian prices in line with American prices. Titles Bookstore is passing these savings on to students.

In response to the strong Canadian dollar, Titles Bookstore's buyers have been working with publishers to secure lower prices. The markdowns from Pearson Canada alone represent about $66,000 in price reductions for Pearson's January 2008 textbooks, says Mark Lefebvre, book operations manager at Titles.

Bill C-32 requires Canadian bookstores to purchase books from Canadian distributors or publishers instead of their American counterparts, which limits the ability of Canadian bookstores to get books at the lower US listed prices.

Titles Bookstore's buyers are also working with Canadian publishers to get textbook prices reduced where the discrepancies between Canadian and US prices are particularly high.

For example, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is being used for a second-year English course in the Winter 2008 term, normally retails for $14 US and $21 Canadian, but a Titles Bookstore buyer was able to negotiate a lower price with the publisher based on the strength of the Canadian dollar. The book now sells for $15.40.

“I am continually impressed with the dedication and commitment of our buyers to try to secure the best possible price on books, especially given the limited ability they have to control pricing,” says Lefebvre.

One of the best ways textbook buyers can secure lower prices on textbooks is by purchasing used books.

“Looking just at textbooks from the fall term in September 2007, by aggressively seeking out used textbooks, our buyers were able to save students a combined total of just under $1 million on textbooks,” says Lefebvre. “That number can continue to climb every single time they receive textbook requests early from faculty. The earlier the request, the bigger the saving for students is likely to be.”

For every $100-textbook that Titles sells, approximately $80 goes to the publisher. Another $10 goes towards shipping, handling and carrying charges. About $9.70 goes towards the bookstore's labour and the costs of operating the store, such as electricity and utilities. The actual profit made by Titles is approximately $0.30.

All profits generated by Titles go towards student services at McMaster through the Department of Student Affairs.