A Sept. 1997 Crimson article compared prices and service--including delivery times and refund policies--between the Coop and Amazon.com for a series of books.

The Coop came out the decided winner, and a quick check reveals that little has since changed. Local booksellers might be a better option, but they say they face constraints similar to the Coop's, and that they have no incentive to take on the Coop's role.

Daniel D. Albano, academic marketing manager for the Harvard Book Store, says textbooks are an area that his company has become increasingly interested in.

"Over the past few years, we've been more aggressive in trying to find out the reading lists for the Core Curriculum courses, because those have been the more widely attended courses," Albano says. "We've been able to get those books in, albeit in modest quantities since we don't have the mandate or space for that inventory."

Store managers have appealed to Faculty to provide them with booklists, and the store purchases students' used books for courses that are still being offered and sells them at half the cover price--cheaper than the Coop's price for used books.

But, according to Albano, the Harvard Book Store is choosing to enter this market more to build customer loyalty than to create a major new profit center.

"The primary idea behind the program is to be able to say 'yes' to people coming in looking for books and to be responsive to their need," Albano says. Nevertheless, he says he thinks that his store competes favorably against the Coop.

"Based on the changes we have worked on in the last few years, I would suggest that it would be worthwhile for any student to competitive shop with us," says Albano.

Murphy says the Coop isn't really concerned.

"The challenge is, can you find the 12 or 14 books that you need [at another store] while I know you can get those here," Murphy says. "We take it upon ourselves to carry every book requested, regardless of the quantity." Moreover, textbook purchases at the Coop are not taxed, while those at Harvard Book Store are.

A Brave New World

While both more used texts and retail competition may ease the burden on some students to some degree, more significant change can only really occur as the publishing industry evolves, and fundamental change may not be that far away.

Imagine a world in which each textbook is custom-made for the student with different features available at different prices.

All of a sudden the market impact of the student's purchase becomes much more significant since each student, and not his or her professor, decides whether to buy certain features.

It's a program in the works at Cornell University called Course Web, and Cornell officials say they would like to have it running by the fall of 1999.