This page was created by Michael Lambright.

This page will describe the W&J bookstore and the various merchandise it sells and services it offers. It will focus particularly on the aspects that are relevant to students.

The Bookstore

The W&J Bookstore is located in the Rossin Campus Center and is open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the Fall and Spring Class Semesters, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during Intersession. While the store primarily sells textbooks, it also sells drinks, snacks, magazines, faculty-authored books, and W&J merchandise, including clothing, decals and stickers, mugs, and other items.

Clothing

A wide array of clothes are available for purchase at the bookstore:  

• T-shirts, polo shirts, button-down shirts, hoodies, and sweatshirts 
• Sweatpants, shorts, and pajama bottoms 
• Autumn, winter, and spring jackets 
• Neckties, hats, socks, gloves, and scarves 

The clothing comes in a variety of brands, including Under Armour, Cutter & Buck, Ahead, Champion, and others, and each piece of apparel boasts the college's name or logo, and it's all of great quality.  

Textbooks

When it comes to textbook buying, students need to make a decision between buying books from the bookstore or from other online stores. Each option has some definite pluses, but they also have their own minuses. Neither route is better than the other in all ways, so it is worth it to discuss each one:

Bookstore

Entirely reliable. The professors place their textbook orders directly to the bookstore, so the store will always have the correct edition of a course's book. If a professor decides to add or change a book, the bookstore is informed of it and will order accordingly. If the professor makes the change after classes have began and you buy the wrong book, the bookstore will allow you to return or exchange it. If you decide to drop a course shortly after classes have started, you can also return the course's books for full price--something you would be unable to do if you did not buy the books from the bookstore.

The bookstore also has a pre-order option that students can use before the beginning of a semester. If a student opts for this, the bookstore will package all of his or her books into a box and tally up the price so the student can come in, pick up the box, and check out quickly and easily.

Online vendors

The chief reason why some students choose to buy their textbooks online is because they can often find the books for a bit cheaper than the bookstore's price.

With that being said, buying books online can be risky. It will generally work out well, but not always. Some times students will order the right text but the wrong edition, or they'll get hideously maimed used copies that were labeled as "Gently Used," or the professor will change a text for the course. In cases such as these, the student, having chosen to buy online, is held completely responsible. The bookstore will not accept returns on these books since they were not purchased from the store, so the student will only be able to try to resell them online.

Book Buyback!

Some students may not know about the event at the end of the Autumn and Spring Semesters during which students can sell their textbooks to the bookstore or a whole sale textbook retailer for cash. The days that books can be sold back vary slightly from year to year, but they are always during the week of finals.
If you aren't planning to keep your books for the future, you might as well sell them back for a fair amount of money. The amount you'll get varies based on a few conditions, such as the condition of the textbooks you're trying to sell, if the wholesaler has a need for them, and whether the bookstore needs the book for an upcoming class and already has bought back enough.

• The importance of the textbooks' quality is pretty self-explanatory: you'll get more money for a book that looks hardly used than one in which you've highlighted half the pages or one that looks thoroughly worn.
• The needs of the wholesaler is something completely out of your control. The list of books they will purchase varies each semester, but they will generally buy back most books for some amount.
• The bookstore will pay more than the wholesaler if it has a need for a book, but this need is determined entirely by what courses are coming up the following semester, the books they'll be using, and the required number of books for that class.

Textbooks for popular 100- and 200-level courses in subjects like Accounting, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, and Foreign Languages will have the highest chance of being bought back by the bookstore, while the wholesaler will likely buy most books, but for less. The earlier you bring in your books, the better chance you have of being able to sell them to the bookstore, and thus have them be bought back for a decent amount of cash!

The Manager's View

Narrative based on an interview with Lorry McMahon - December 2nd, 2008.

The way I see it, the college bookstore is here to serve the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents to the best of our ability. Matter of fact, that's in our mission statement. We do a lot of work to get all the right books, clothing, and supplies that our customers want.

 A lot of time goes into getting the right textbooks for the students. We work with over 100 faculty, with each one having three or more classes, and each class having more than one book, and only a couple of us are organizing. Of course, we have the part time workers to help get the textbooks and other items out on the shelves and such, and they are a big help with keeping the store running smoothly. We handle the clothing and supplies with the students in mind too. We try to listen to the customers' requests and accommodate them. Hence we recently started ordering Under Armour, which has been a real hit with the students.

We also work with the parents, too, for any needs, like ordering textbooks for their children, or ordering a gift basket or a gift certificate, and other things of that nature. Our website, which is maintained and handled just by us as well, is up especially to help them and the students. We're currently working to revamp the website to make it a lot better, but it's still functional. It's organized so parents, or whoever is interested, can order clothing and other merchandise conveniently, and all of the orders are handled at the store by our workers.

We're a member of NACS, the National Association of College Stores, so, through them, we're able to sell most of our merchandise a good deal cheaper than we would otherwise. Unfortunately, we can't sell textbooks for cheaper because they apparently count as fair trade items, which are supposed to have a set standard price. Of course, certain used book vendors sell them for less than the set price, but we can't do that.

What the Bookstore has to offer

In addition to the main items it sells, the book store also has a number of services and special-order items available:

• Package shipping
• Stamps
• Check cashing
• Gift baskets, flowers, and balloons
• Gift certificates
• Diploma frames
• Graduation rings

Any additional questions can be directed to Lorry McMahon at lmcmahon@washjeff.edu

Links

W&J Bookstore Online