College bookstores win battle of prices

College bookstores win battle of prices

By Julie Chai
The Stanford Daily
ATLANTA
November 20, 1998

(U-WIRE) STANFORD-The Stanford Bookstore was part of a legal victory last Wednesday in a price-discrimination lawsuit against a major university publisher.

Cambridge University Press agreed in federal court in New York City to modify its pricing discount policies, making the same discounts available to all retailers. This agreement ended a lawsuit filed last July by the National Association of College Stores, of which Stanford Bookstore is a member.

Cambridge Press, which maintains an office on campus, had a dual-pricing system, with one price scale for trade bookstores such as Crown Books and Barnes & Noble, and another for university bookstores.

Cambridge Press has traditionally charged more to college bookstores than trade bookstores for texts used predominantly in classrooms, according to Marc Fleischaker, general counsel for the association.

The association believed it was unfair that trade bookstores were able to purchase professional, academic and course-related books for greater discounts than campus bookstores because trade bookstores could then offer students the titles for a lower price.

"It's a legitimate concern of college bookstores that someone's undercutting them in price," said John Zotz, deputy director of finance and operations for Stanford University Press.

Publishers' practice of maintaining a dual discount system is not new, according to Peggy Mendelson, president of the Stanford Bookstore.

College bookstores essentially have a built-in market for academic texts since many of these books are required for classes. Trade stores, however, generally have a smaller market for the more specialized texts, so publishers would offer a greater discount on academic books as an incentive for the trade stores to carry them.

It is unlikely that Cambridge's revised policy will affect the price of books at Stanford Bookstore.

"My speculation is that textbook prices won't change," said Mendelson. "[Cambridge's policy modification] will simply eliminate the discount from trade. Our policy is to try to keep the prices the same."

Because trade bookstores will not receive as great a discount as in the past, the new policy may mean lower profits for books sold in the trade section of the bookstore and, as a result, influence which titles are offered.

"We will not raise prices, but we'll look very carefully at the books sold in trade," said Mendelson.

"We have to decide carefully if it's a book our customers want, and if it is, we'll continue to carry it."

Cambridge plans to implement the new policy by April 1999.

Alan Harvey, manager of the Cambridge University Press office on Stanford campus, declined to comment on the settlement.

Stanford University Press, whose largest market is on the East Coast, currently has a dual pricing system. It uses Cambridge University Press as a major distribution vendor.

"Most non-university presses have changed [their dual discount policies], but it's still a big problem with university presses," said Fleischaker. "We're hoping that Cambridge will encourage other university presses to change.

Zotz said that Stanford University Press is considering changing its pricing policy as well.

"We'll probably make [the discount system] simpler before the year ends," said Zotz.

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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