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Sen's Bring & Buy

Sep 10 2001 19:19

Charlie Brown

ICU President plans to expand Union into second hand sales.

This article was not published purely as an excuse to put up another Sen + Dinesh pic.

The influence of former Guilds President, Dinesh Ganeserajah, has resurfaced in Sen Ganesh's latest expansion plans for ICU. Mr Ganeserajah was always keen on departmental societies organising sales of second-hand text books. At the height of his enthusiasm he even produced a draft second-hand text books strategy paper.

Now the ICU President, wants to extend ICU's reach into second-hand sales. Mr Ganesh said he wanted to "better co-ordinate and facilitate the good work already done in some parts of the Union". It has been suggested that the Union may organize a second-hand text books "jumble sale" in Beit Quad.

Reaction to the news has been mixed. Some union hacks were enthusiastic, citing it as another useful service to students. Others suggested that Mr Ganesh should concentrate on sorting out Waterstones - which would appear to be the natural place for second-hand text books to be sold. Meanwhile, most students were indifferent as they tend not to bother with text books...

Guilds President, Mustafa Arif, distanced himself from the moves. He added that Mr Ganeserajah's plan to turn the C&GCU Office into a second-hand book shop (with a web-based ordering system) had been shelved. Mr Arif did, however, say that he "remained open-minded" about helping dep socs build on their existing successful sales.

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Discussion about “Sen's Bring & Buy”

The comments below are unmoderated submissions by Live! readers. The Editor accepts no liability for their content, nor for any offence caused by them. Any complaints should be directed to the Editor.

1. Oliver Pell

Sep 10 2001 19:46

This Sen and Dinesh pic also happens to be on the cgcu.net front page - nice to know that C&G are milking their photo library for all it's worth.......

2. kevin

Sep 13 2001 19:35

While the average IC student is using fewer textbooks year on year, some groups such as Fresher Medics still purchace hundreds of pounds worth of textbooks each every year.

ULU annually hold a large and sucessful second hand book sale in Malet Street. Perhaps advertising this around the IC sites would be worthwhile - though this has not happened in living memory. The sale could even be moved to West London for a day if there was a demand.

Whenever I have discussed second hand booksales people in the college (Union, Library, Sherfield) generally frown and point to the Waterstones contract which grants it exclusive rights to campus book sales. Waterstones in return promise that the central library will house the company's 'premier academic bookstore', stock adaquate quantities of recomended textbooks, provide a sophisticated electronic ordering system, and operate a second hand book selling service.

Perhpas the union being allowed to sell second hand books is a sign that the college has finially conceeded that Waterstones is not keeping to its side of the bargin, and is the first step towards removing the store and enabling new bids for running the college bookshop to be made.

There is little doubt that ICU would be able to provide the cheapest and most relevant service to its students. Such an arangement would not be welcomed by college's bussiness brains who would only notice the loss of the huge sum of money currently grabbed by the college through its student-fleacing profit-sharing agreement with Waterstones.

Waterstones were recently critisied by the national student press for charging higher prices for textbooks in campus shops than in there own high street stores.

I hope that these issues will be discussed widely in the weeks ahead, in particular by the Union's academic reps.

Education, Education, Education.

3. Andy Heeps

Sep 15 2001 15:28

Hear, hear.

4. Mustafa Arif

Sep 17 2001 12:40

While small groups (like Dep Socs) can make a useful contribution, I think it would be most sensible for a permanent second-hand book sales stall to be sited in the bookshop on campus.

What Kevin raises is a different (but related) issue. The current bookshop on campus is outsourced to Waterstones - and they are apparently doing a very poor job. (I can't relate this to personal experience as I've only once tried to find a book there, and had no problems.)

Given all the complaints that have appeared in Felix over the last two years regarding the Waterstones, it is probably about time that that the student union started prodding Waterstones and College a lot more forcefully than in the past.

5. Adrian

Sep 19 2001 23:48

Locating the second-hand books in the bookshop (whoever runs it) has considerable advantages. Firstly there is the sharing of sales infrastructure and full-time staff, but more importantly there is the "everything-under-one-roof" effect. The range of books available second-hand is always going to be much less than that for new books. If they are sold at a different location, then a student wanting a particular book faces a good chance that after going to the second hand book place, they will then have to go to the main bookshop anyway, leading many to not bother in the first place. Whereas if they are in the same place, a student who goes to the bookshop straight off can be easily diverted to the second-hand shelves in order to save a bit of cash. If the second-hands could also be included on the electronic catalog to allow easy determination of whether this option was available, so much the better.

Closed This discussion is closed.