Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics
by tzs on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @12:05PM
(#26003531)
> Two of the colleges I'm familiar with would lose money on their bookstore if they didn't have a monopoly on college-branded merchandise. It'd be better for them to just stop selling books and only sell clothes + electronics + price-gauged office supplies for the captive market ("I need some pens/paper/etc. but don't want to leave campus tonight").
Caltech did that years ago, I'm told, except for books with some obvious Caltech connection (e.g., the Feynman lectures, biographies of famous Caltech people, and that sort of thing). If you want textbooks for your classes, they send you to some online place called MBS Direct.
I still have trouble imagining this. When I was there ('70-80s) I bought a lot of books on campus that were not textbooks for my classes. They were a good general technical bookstore and decent general interest bookstore (at least when it came to science fiction and fantasy). I think the nearest off campus bookstore with a decent technical books selection was Vroman's, which was about a 3 mile round trip to walk. I wouldn't have wanted to do that every time I felt like browsing technical books.
Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics
by cafard on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @02:33PM
(#26005460)
I believe that American University in Washington, DC, no longer sells books. The link at bkstr.com gives an address in Capitol Heights, Maryland, which is fair distance from AU.
Caltech did that years ago, I'm told, except for books with some obvious Caltech connection (e.g., the Feynman lectures, biographies of famous Caltech people, and that sort of thing). If you want textbooks for your classes, they send you to some online place called MBS Direct.
I still have trouble imagining this. When I was there ('70-80s) I bought a lot of books on campus that were not textbooks for my classes. They were a good general technical bookstore and decent general interest bookstore (at least when it came to science fiction and fantasy). I think the nearest off campus bookstore with a decent technical books selection was Vroman's, which was about a 3 mile round trip to walk. I wouldn't have wanted to do that every time I felt like browsing technical books.