Sunday, January 27, 2008
Ron Paul Political Cartoon
Now while I have long been a supporter of the ideas at the foundation of Dr./Congressmen Ron Paul's campaign, even making it up to New Hampshire to work on Operation Live Free or Die, I still have my concerns, like his views on immigration, or the "Family Protection Act", where he seems to waver from his Austrian Economics roots. Plus, those letters still have not been given a thorough explanation, guilty by association?
Still, the rEVOLution gives me hope, and it gave me the incentive to get involved.
Plus, when else are you going to get a man on national television talking to millions of people about the Austrian business cycle? That is so wonderful! And, at any rate, he is the closest I have to a candidate that represents my beliefs, on either side of the aisle.
Viva la rEVOLution. www.ronpaul2008.com
Monday, October 1, 2007
Buying Local: A Look at the St Johns College Bookstore
A kind-faced friendly gentleman with a gentle Scottish brogue asked if he could help me with anything, (he must of noticed the glassy look in my eyes). I told him I was a transfer and he introduced himself as Robin Dunn—General Manager of the
Robin first described his job to me as that of "just a humble tradesman." He tells the best stories! If you ever get a chance you should ask him about his childhood in
In order to address this concern, I asked what happens to the profits that are made at the bookstore. It turns out the bookstore is not a for-profit business at all. As part of the college, the bookstore is a non-profit organization. That means that any money the bookstore makes, after covering costs, goes into the general fund of the college, which mostly goes to financial aid. So the more that Robin runs the bookstore like a for-profit, and the more money he makes, the more students will be able to afford to attend St. John's and be involved in what we do. So everything sold in the bookstore, from a Penguin to a platypus, goes to helping the greater college community. It goes towards helping us actualize our mission. How could that be bad?
But people are still concerned that the way the bookstore is being run is too commercial. For instance, when the Bookstore started expanding the selection of non-program books there was some resistance. The bookstore saw their primary duty to be making available the program texts, but they were also in the business of offering people what they want. After learning that all profit goes towards enriching the college community, I had trouble seeing why a larger selection would not be embraced by everyone. For one, it brings more people into the bookstore, especially people from outside our college community. That is what conversation and our college is all about: bringing people together to talk and learn from one another through books.
In my conversations with Robin I learned that over the past ten years of employment he has seen some controversy as he tries to bring patrons into the store. Robin told me that after 9/11 there were a lot of requests for more books on Islam and the
The biggest non-book draws to the Bookstore are, of course, college memorabilia. And yet this has been one of long-standing points of contention within the college. There are only two places in the world to get
Once I had addressed other peoples concerns, I wanted to find out about a few my own. Firstly, why are the manuals for our classes so expensive? And secondly, why does the bookstore run out of the most popular edition of
When I asked Robin, he looked embarrassed and earnestly said, "I feel terrible, I am not here to make people miserable or bankrupt them…I see it as a personal mission to keep the costs down…I am their bookstore, their bookstore, suggest books and I will see if I can try it out, comments or complaints, I will explain everything, they are entitled to ask me." Robin has stiff competition from so many other booksellers that keeping the prices high would do nothing for the bookstore: it wouldn't get the business it wants and it would hurt its relationship with its most important customers: the students. So why are manuals so expensive?
Well, I found out that one reason is the smaller the printing, the more it costs per item.
I always assumed that competition would keep the prices down for most of the books, but since the bookstore is the only place to buy class manuals, I thought that they might take advantage of this opportunity to charge me at a higher rate than other books because I can't go anywhere else. I was shocked to learn that that isn't the case! The bookstore knows that the price is a problem and they have done everything they can to keep it down. In order to cover the total costs of the bookstore, Robin has to add an average 28% on everything he sells. But he only adds about 22% to the manuals. This means that patrons who choose to buy in the bookstore those things they could buy at Amazon or Barnes and Nobles help to subsidize the students who have to buy their class manuals there. And to help keep the price down in the future, Robin and Crystal Ebert, the new Assistant Manager, and Everett Reed, the new Floor Manager, are exploring new options with copyright clearing houses that might be able to cut back on some of the fees and ultimately reduce the price of manuals even further.
Finally, why does the bookstore run out of the most popular editions? Robin said that since he has limited storage space and limited funds he has to choose which editions he will stock. The problem is that the "popular" translations actually change dramatically from year to year. And he hasn't come across any factors he can discern or patterns that he can use to improve his predictions. It seems that being able to foresee which editions will be most popular in a given year is about as easy as translating a prophesy given by the Oracle at
When I am frustrated by things I see in the world I like to try to figure them out, and when I am able to learn the story of why they are the way are, it turns out that I live in a world that is much less frustrating than I first thought. The fact that the bookstore does so well means that more people learn about
Rachel Davison runs the Human Action Study Group: Rhetoric of Classical Economics, Tuesdays, 8:00pm, Coffeeshop. She is a Senior-transfer from
Published:
The Gadfly: The St. John's College Student Weekly, Annapolis, MD
Volume XXIX, Issue 5, September 28, 2007
Awarded:
Students for a Free Economy
September Commentary Contest, 1st Runner-Up
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