Cooperating with the Coop

We’ve all experienced the tinge of disappointment after hauling bags of old books back to the Coop only to find that they’ll only offer you a couple of dollars for books that were many times more expensive at the beginning of the semester. According to Assistant General Manager Steve Babbit, we end up getting what the Coop calls “wholesale price” for many of our books because the Coop is unsure if these books will be needed next year. Many professors do not submit book orders until mid-summer, even though the Coop asks that they do it by May 15. Because our professors can’t seem to meet the deadline, Harvard students lose literally millions of dollars a year.

This might seem a little outlandish. But, if each student at Harvard loses $100 (a conservative estimate), and there are tens of thousands of students, then we’re all missing out on millions of buyback dollars. The easy answer is for professors to change their ways—but this prospect does not seem very likely. There must be a more pragmatic solution that still allows professors to procrastinate.

The Palmer Street Coop currently has three ways that it treats used books during buyback season. If the book has been reordered by a professor—as about 1500 (of 5000 total each semester) already have—the Coop will pay 50 percent of the new price, sometimes less if the book is in bad shape. For books that are not yet reordered, but which the Coop speculates will be reordered based on past history, the buyback price is 25-35 percent of new price. The Coop book department usually speculates on 1000 to 1200 books each semester. Correct speculations can go on the shelves as used books for 75 percent of new prices, netting a nice profit and saving us money.

This brings us to the 2500 books in the wholesale category, which is the least appealing of all because the prices are low—a buck, two bucks, or nothing. Books in this category are sold directly to a national used book dealer, and they must be sold right away because prices change every month. But there is an elegant solution to this problem that would benefit both students and the Coop.

Instead of paying 25-35 percent on speculation books, the Coop should pay 10 percent, and use the savings to speculate on an additional 1500 titles that would otherwise go to the wholesaler. On buyback day, students would get less cash than they do now, but the Coop computers would keep track of how little it paid each student for each book. This wouldn’t be hard—the Coop already keeps track of our purchases and sends us refund checks at the end of the year.

A few months later, when professors belatedly send their orders in, the Coop would find out what books it really needs. For students, the beauty of the plan comes at rebate season: The Coop would reimburse people who sold books that professors reordered with an additional 35 percent of the new price, added onto their annual rebate checks. Although a higher percentage of speculations would not be reordered, these costs would be cancelled out because the Coop would only be paying ten percent for all speculations, and failed speculations could be sold to the wholesaler.

This plan could work independently at all six M.I.T. and Harvard Coop locations, saving both the Coop and its customers huge amounts of money. And management is interested: Steve Babbit said, “That’s an idea we should bring up. I’m willing to bring the idea to the Coop board.” After all, when the Coop and students share the risks and benefits of speculation, everyone has more money to spend on midnight pizza, beer and, well, more books.

—Nicholas F.B. Smyth is an editorial editor.