At the beginning of the quarter, students are shocked at how much college textbooks cost.
So where are students going to get the best priced books? The top choice of De Anza students is not De Anza or Premiere bookstores, but Amazon.
Students prefer Amazon Prime to the campus bookstore because of the return policy and decreased costs, according to an anonymous survey on 75 students at De Anza.
Forty-eight percent of surveyed students responded they would rather purchase their books from Amazon than from Premiere or the campus bookstore.
Since Amazon sells online and networks with other online sellers to create a virtual marketplace, the prices are considerably lower than traditional bookstores.
In addition, Amazon offers discounts on shipping, free return service with prime membership, and higher refunds through their buyback program.
Because of these incentives, students don’t mind the short wait time involved in getting their books from Amazon.
Premiere Bookstore across the street is the second most favored choice among De Anza students. Survey showed 33 percent of students choose Premiere.
While the prices are not as low as Amazon’s, they are lower than De Anza’s buying and renting prices. The location makes it easy for students to pay a little more for books right away.
Currently only about 17 percent of the surveyed population prefers to buy their books at the De Anza bookstore.
Kelly Swanson, the director of De Anza bookstore, is planning to change that. “We are going to be very competitive in the winter quarter because we are taking some of the steps now to change some of the price.”
“The best part of the De Anza bookstore is that we have direct contact with the faculty,” she said, “we should have the most current information for you and hopefully in the future we will have the best price.” Swanson said.
Swanson offered some tips how students can make the most of the new buyback and rental rules. “Get in here early,” she said, “We have the most amount of rentals [and] used books and you can save quite a bit of money.”
