Coop Books More Expensive

In the last week, undergraduates have been groaning as they peer into their mailboxes to find hefty Coop bills.

But an unofficial Crimson survey has shown that The Coop isn't the only source for frequently assigned textbooks in the Square--and that alternatives can often be cheaper.

Students can save as much as a third of the cost of textbooks by buying outside of The Coop, particularly when they are hunting for books frequently assigned in Harvard classes.

For instance, John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, assigned in Moral Reasoning, government and philosophy courses, costs $18.95 at the Coop, $17.06 at Wordsworth Books, and $11.95 in the remainders bin at the Harvard Bookstore.

And The Coop generally carries only one version of a required textbook for a course, while other book-stores often carry multiple editions of popular titles, some cheaper than the edition available at the Coop.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice costs $7.95 at the Coop for the Penguin Classics edition, whereas the Dover edition at Wordsworth books costs only $1.80.

"I'm an English major, so I go to used bookstores a lot, or sometimes to Wordsworth," said Chris Min '97. "I just don't like the Coop very much."

But The Coop holds a Square-wide monopoly over hard science textbooks, since these books are not of interest to the general public, according to Jerome T. Murphy '73, president of The Coop.

Although the Coop does offer 20 percent off most hardcover books, it does not provide discounts for paperbacks or textbooks.

"We used to give 10 percent off paperbacks, day in, day out, but we switched to 20 percent off on hardcovers because there was more demand for hardcover books," Murphy said.

Wordsworth Books, on the other hand, offers 10 percent off most titles, paperback and hardcover alike.

Harvard Bookstore does not mark down most of its books, but holds discount volumes in its "remainders bin," and its frequent buyers program is famous among Harvard undergraduates.

"You get one stamp for each purchase over ten dollars, and once you've collected ten stamps, you get a 20 percent discount on a single purchase of up to $200," said Amy M. Arnold, an employee of the Harvard Bookstore.

The Coop does generally offer rebates to its member customers depending on profits, but it has not offered rebates for the past two years. According to general manager Alan E. Powell, The Coop will release its decision on rebates for the current year within a week.