How to Beat BookFool.com

Posted by Luke on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 · View Comments

I’ll be frank. This long post is about honor. It’s about companies and schools that operate with honor, dignity, and respect and about those that don’t. Since we opened our doors in 2003, we’ve found that competition brings out the best in most … but the worst in some.

THE SECRET

The best way to beat the Book Fool is to offer better prices and a better experience. That’s it. That’s the secret. Many of our competitors know this and have adjusted their prices accordingly.

We’re successful because we treat students with respect. If we can’t offer the best price, we can help them figure out where to get it.

We welcome students who want to compare our prices with the bookstore’s. And if they want to sell half their books to us and half to someone else, they won’t get dirty looks or snide comments from us. We’re just glad they found a good deal.

JUICY GOSSIP

The worst way to beat the Book Fool is by sending the campus police to pester us, harassing the students who come to us, or bad-mouthing us to whoever comes through your store. Trust us, this comes across as petty and only serves to cheapen the entire textbook industry.

You may think you’re rocking our world by calling the cops on us for a false charge. Well, really you’re just wasting their time and energy. We respect the police and other authorities. They provide for the safety of our communities, and we view them as friends. Plus, they have better things to do with their time than serve as your personal valet.

LIKE WHAT?

And now you, fair reader, would like to hear some examples of what we’re talking about. Bet you didn’t know the textbook market was so hotly contested.

Well, we have endured much wackiness from competitors. Students have told us that their campus bookstore refuses to let them compare their prices with ours, some by refusing to break down the total price book-by-book and some by simply refusing to price your books if it looks like you’re writing down the numbers. The behavior of an obsolete monopoly.

But we’ve also faced more serious, concerted anti-competitive behavior.

CONFUSED #1

In early 2008, we had the president of a school come to our off-campus buyback and make a scene in front of 50 (no joke, 50) of his students. He was red in the face and out of control, trying to intimidate us into leaving. We said nothing and eventually he left, but his students couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed.

“Was that Dr. X?” they asked. Of course they knew who he was, but they couldn’t believe a man of his age and status was debasing himself in public like that, like a spoiled child throwing a temper-tantrum in a grocery store.

CONFUSED #2

Late last year, we received an email out of the blue that offered us an odd deal. The writer said he would consider not starting an off-campus bookstore at one of our schools if we would entirely withdraw from a school we have served for years. Give up one school to protect another. He’s saying if we take a negative action (withdraw from a market), he will not take a positive action, one that hasn’t happened yet.

We had a debate over whether this was blackmail or extortion (it’s probably more like a Protection Racket), but the bottom line is that it’s anti-competitive, it smacks of collusion, and we won’t stand for it.

We ignored the unreasonable request and soon received another email from the same author promising to rain fire down upon us. He then began using Dillards.com to send us photos of women in bras–for what reason I can only imagine–which he signs his name to.

Classy move, G!

This is not how honorable adults in a free society behave. Fortunately, not all of our competitors act like this.

FOOLISH REBUTTAL

What I want to ask our misguided competitors is simple:

Do you believe in the free market?
Do you believe in capitalism?
Do you believe in personal honor?

If you send your campus police to harass us, that’s not the free market at work. That’s state-sponsored commerce.

If you badmouth us constantly, how is that helping students get the best prices for their books? And how does that serve the industry as a whole?

If you send threatening emails to competitors instead of letting your prices and services speak for themselves, you’ve traded your honor for a second adolescence.

MESSAGE TO THE NUTS

Before you act like a clown and do something you might regret, take a second to think. Ask yourself why you got in the business of textbooks in the first place. To make a quick buck? Or to give students a fair deal on their used books and make their lives easier?

Let me make this clear: Most of our competitors are honest, hardworking people who let their prices and services speak for themselves and would never engage in anti-competitive behavior. The few I’ve mentioned above have simply lost their way.