Are You Being Helped?

Students who waited a day before buying their books this year ran afoul of the Coop's policy of Never Be Caught with a Large Inventory. They are still waiting. Other Square bookstores bow to the same doctrine, but their proportion of the required text business is so small they cannot afford to duck it.

The doctrine goes this way: Because overbuying is a commercial disgrace, Coop buyers order conservatively and then reorder on demand. Enhancing their reputation for financial sagacity, this practice hurts only students. But after all, they are only the theoretical owners of the Coop.

But actually, repeated experience has shown the Coop's fears as largely groundless. Especially in the larger courses, the demand tramples the supply, and students yearly mark academic time while new books wend their way Cambridge-wards.

Even if, in special circumstances, text-books do not sell, the Coop is hedged with various financial safety valves, which in various ways, assure it of a percentage rebate with most publishers.

But even a book unsold is far from a total loss. Barring the eloquent and extortionate professor who writes a new required text each year, most courses use books at least three times.

But even if it must take some loss, the Coop should concentrate on student service rather than piling up profits. No one can blame them for being understocked when courses blossom with unexpected popularity, but too many students in too many courses have had to wait for reorders to excuse the Coop's poor foresight.

There are two ways to end the textbook dwindle. First, the Registrar should send to the Coop, and other bookstores, his estimates of the courses' probable attendance. While these are not infallible, as witness the shuffling of classrooms, they do represent a study of past attendance and current trends in course popularity. This would provide buyers with a guide sufficiently before the term to be effective. Now, they must rely on random reports by individual professors on their own popularity.

Finally, the Coop should buy with the student in mind. Complete supplies are worth the risk of slight over-stocking, as long as it is the students' store.