WSU Students Protest Bookie High Prices, Poor Service Cited At 82-Year-Old Campus Bookstore

A small group of Washington State University students on Tuesday protested high prices, poor service and a lack of student control over the student-owned campus bookstore.

“I know I’m paying too much, you know you’re paying too much,” said Associated Students of WSU President Matt Caires, speaking through a megaphone.

About 70 students, a few bearing signs, stood nearby. Hundreds of other students watched briefly as they passed by on their way to classes.

“No Crookies in The Bookie!” urged one protester’s sign.

The bookstore, known as The Bookie, was founded by students in 1914. In 1947, they entrusted their corporation to the university’s Board of Regents. The students still own the bookstore, which is run by a board of nine, including five students.

That board, Caires said, is largely made up of business students whose focus is on turning a profit, not serving students.

The protesters want more of the bookstore’s profit - some $564,000 last year - returned to students, and lower textbook prices. Last year, $70,000 of the profit went to the student government; the bookstore kept the rest.

Some students who watched the protest said they side with Caires.

“It is pricey and the service hasn’t been up to par,” said Cary Barnette, a junior from Lynden, Wash. She applied for a bookstore job, but wasn’t certain what to do after hearing the protesters. “I don’t want to work in a place if it’s taking advantage of me and my friends.”

But manager David Cooper, a Texas native who’s held the job since 1970, said the bookstore gives students “the lowest possible price still consistent with good business practices.”

For example, he said, all students get a 10 percent discount on textbooks - a savings of $766,000 last year.

Also, he said, 52 percent of the textbooks sold are used books. That’s twice the national average for college bookstores, he said, and saves students more money.

Most of the bookstore’s $564,000 profit, he said, pays for equipment, inventory, renovations and expansions. “If we never expanded, we’d look like we did in 1914. Very tiny,” he said.

The profits also pay for hidden services. When books are sold out, for example, students can order new ones shipped by second-day airmail for no extra cost. The bookstore absorbs that shipping cost.

“This store will probably try to stay the course. Because the store has done a good job,” he said.

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