Monday • September 1, 1997
L The Battalion
IFESTYLES
Less book
for more buck
PC REPAIR SPECIALIST
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To apply, stop by our Recruiting office in the Metro
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call 1-800-883-3031. E.O.E.
UNIVERSAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INC.
http://www.ucs-systems.com
Every semester, Aggies participate in book-buying, the costly tradition
By Stephen Wells
Staff writer
O K, everybody has just moved to Ag-
gieland. They have taken care of tuition,
cleaned up their new homes and gone
Jloafew parties. Now they need books. Some
may feel the need to sell a lot of plasma after
iheyhave left the bookstore.
College students need to accept that book
prices are high. Shri Parchure, Loupot’s book de
partment manager, said running a bookstore is
jus!like running any other business.
“Book prices are high when they come in
here,” Parchure said. “We have to pay more for
our books than a normal bookstore."
He went on to say it is a matter of supply and
demand, but College Station’s abundance of
kookstores creates competition that drives
down the prices.
"[In] this town, people have a bookstore near-
iliywherever they live,” Parchure said. “You have
lie bookstores on Northgate and Southgate. You
ilso have the MSC Bookstore and the stores on
Harvey road. It is very convenient for the stu
dents of A&M to have so many bookstores.”
This reduces prices and increases accessibil
ity; both are good for students.
“Even the on-campus bookstore is owned by
a corporation in New York,” Parchure said.
All of the off-campus bookstores are owned or
were started by Aggie graduates. Since prices are
so similar for books, buying them becomes a
matter of convenience and style. How students
like to shop is also a determining factor in where
they shop.
“It’s like going to Luby’s,” Parchure said. “Some
people do not like to stand in line so they do not
go. Some go because they like to see what it is they
are getting before they pay for it. At the MSC, you
see what you are getting. At Loupot’s, we get your
books for you. It is just a matter of taste.”
To help curb some of the cost for school sup
plies, many students choose to buy only their
books at bookstores and get other supplies else
where. Students who buy in bulk at Office Max
or Office Depot save money by going out of then-
way to get essential supplies.
Another method of saving cash is buying used
books. All used books are on average 25 percent
cheaper than their new counterparts. Mack
Paradowski, a junior environmental design ma
jor, has a theory for book-buying.
“Just get somebody’s books that they could
n’t sell back,” Paradowski said. “The only dif
ferences between the editions will be the prac
tice problems.”
Other students buy their outside of class read
ing books and read them quickly so they can turn
them in for a full refund.
Still, books are an expensive investment.
Some students spend $200 for books. Others,
like Nicole Brenneman, a freshman biology
major, spent upwards of $400, even with the
used book discount.
Expectations for the cost of books vary from
students to student.
“I spent $415 on books and I still have anoth
er book to buy,” Brenneman said, “I expected to
pay a lot less than that.”
Many freshmen are surprised when they see
their first bill for books. Others are pessimistic at
the outset to avoid the heartache of hundreds of
their dollars spent in a manner of seconds. Travis
Lott, freshman animal science major, summed
up his feelings with a simple prediction.
“I haven’t bought my books yet, but when I do
I bet I’ll get screwed,” Lott said.
Summer movies make impression
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 1997
summer movie season was touted as
te most competitive ever. It lived up
oils billing.
When the Labor Day weekend’s re-
sipts are tallied, summer sales will be
larrowly — perhaps no more than 1
Jercent — ahead of last year’s sum-
/er record of $2.38 billion, Exhibitor
delations Co. estimated.
But the results came at a high price:
Production and marketing budgets
*ere up as much as 25 percent from
syear ago. Several wildly expensive
summer movies, including Batman and
Robin and Speed 2: Cruise Control,
f ailed miserably.
Actual admissions were probably
down from a year ago; the record-
breaking numbers are largely attribut
able to costlier movie tickets — now
$9 in some urban markets.
The five highest-grossing films be
tween Memorial and Labor Day were,
in order, Men in Black, The Lost World:
Jurassic Park, Air Force One, My Best
Friend’s Wedding and Face/Off In their
wake were dozens of also-rans, movies
that barely made enough money to pay
the caterer.
“It was absolutely the most com
petitive summer ever,” said Robert
Bucksbaum, publisher of Reel Source,
a newsletter for industry insiders and
movie theater owners.
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Deliveries Daily 11 AM - PM and 5 PM - 9 PM. All Major Credit Cards Accepted.
MSC
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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Inc,
SaturdaySeptember 6, 1997
Rudder Auditorium
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$12.50 pre-sale A
LiL Keke $ I. S-DO at tlre door jfjE'i
Ticket* AvAilAbic at MSC Ekwc Office
1409)845 1234
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MILITARY
DEPOT
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105 WALTON DRIVE
COLLEGE STATION, TX 77840
ON THE CORNER OF
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WELCOME* BACK
For all the styles and all the savings,
Post Oak Mall is the only place to shop,
You’ll find all your favorite stores . . .
plus special offers for Aggie shoppers.
SIDEWALK SALE
AUG. 29 - SEPT. 1
This Friday through Monday, our Sidewalk Sale’s
the place to find really cool stuff at really great prices!
PICK UP YOUR
FREE CHECKBOOK
Filled with valuable coupons
and save money at dozens of your favorite stores.
Available at the Customer Service Booth, *
while supplies last.
SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS
AND GET $5 FREE
Starting today,
check out Post Oak Mall’s great stores
and spend just $65.
Present your mall receipts
at our Customer Service Booth
and we’ll give you a $5 Gift Certificate
to spend on anything you want at any of our stores.
Quantities limited, good while supplies last.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
SEPTEMBER 6 & 7
Welcome Back Party . . .
All Aggies are invited to a very collegiate weekend,
sponsored by Post Oak Mall and Aggie 96FM.
Pick up some pointers on campus life and
get your FREE “Fall at the Mall” gift pack.
Plus, at 2pm on Saturday, enjoy our
“What’s Fashionable for Fall” show.
Bealls, Dillard's, Foley's, JCPenney, Sears, Service Merchandise, The Food Court and
105 Specialty Stores. Open Monday-Saturday 10 to 9, Sunday 12 to 6.
Your Gift Certificate Connection ... Call Our Customer Service Booth 764-0777.
Texas 6 Bypass at Highway 30, College Station
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