'A random act of bookstore goodwill'

Junior Adam Lindsey went to the University Book Store on the Ave. late yesterday morning to pick up a book for his construction management class not knowing he would receive his entire courseload of books for free this quarter.

But after he was swarmed by half a dozen Book Store employees -- some clapping, one banging on a drum -- as he stood at the cash register, Lindsey was all smiles.

"He's got his entire courseload," U. Book Store CEO Bryan Pearce announced to the crowd in line to buy their books and supplies.

"We've never done this before, but we're really excited," said Heather MacCoy, the Book Store's director of merchandising and marketing.

"If it's a law student, we're eating it," she added before the event.

Lindsey, who is majoring in electrical engineering, was one of six UW student customers who walked out of the U. Book Store yesterday afternoon with a quarter's worth of textbooks on the house.

"I'm speechless," said Lindsey, who estimated that he spends between $200 and $300 on books every quarter.

It was a "random act of bookstore goodwill toward students," said U. Book Store CEO Bryan Pearce, but also an attempt to help students bogged down by textbook costs some would call excessive.

"We do everything we can do to keep the price reasonable for students," Pearce said, citing the U. Book Store's popular patronage refund that allows students who save their receipts to an 8 percent refund for the 2005-2006 school year. "There's a whole host of things that go into keeping prices high."

The price of textbooks has become so high that it has begun attracting the attention of lawmakers. A bill written by students calling on legislators to address the high cost of textbooks was submitted to the state legislature last year.

On the national level, outcry about the price of learning has been so loud that the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has begun investigating why textbook prices are so steep -- a highly unusual move considering that the GAO doesn't usually interfere with the private market, Pearce said.

To combat the amount of money students are being required to spend on new and even used editions, the Book Store plans to introduce an online service that takes the guesswork out of buyback. Traditionally, students have had to haul all of the books they want to sell back to the bookstore to be appraised by employees, who tell students the buyback price.

The new online service will list buyback prices, as well as notify students via E-mail when a book not picked up by a professor for use during the next quarter -- and thus ineligible for buyback -- has been placed on a teacher's book list. In addition, the U. Book Store plans to introduce its own Web-based used book classifieds service, which is about "playing matchmaker" between those who want to sell old textbooks and those who are looking to buy used, Pearce said.

During the busiest days of the year, the U. Book Store will do more than a million dollars in sales of textbooks alone, and more than $100,000 for supplies.

The U. Book Store did have a limit to how much they were willing to fork over to outfit a student with textbooks for the quarter, drawing the line at covering more than a $400 purchase.

Still, "I don't think I've rung up many purchases over $400," MacCoy said.

Pearce said yesterday will not be the only time during the quarter students will be surprised with free books.

The bookstore is planning to do it again during buyback at the end of the quarter, and possibly on other occasions throughout the fall in an effort to aid as many students as possible.