Friday, January 25, 2008

Bad Sentences

You’re about to start classes and need to buy books. Do you go to the bookstore or just buy them online. Buying online doesn’t work because some of the books on your list are BYU editions and are only sold in the BYU Bookstore. You go to sell back the books at the end of the semester and they have published a new edition and won’t take it. Some things like syllabi and lecture notes need to be bought in the bookstore but the bookstore is unfair to the students and it should be changed.
One thing could solve all these problems. The BYU Bookstore should offer an online service. You should be able to shop the bookstore online for your textbooks. The books could be waiting for you in store. Just pay for them and leave. This solves many problems. People far from BYU could shop from home. Some might say this means the bookstore employees have to work harder while. The employees would not have to work harder. Most of the employees could work whenever they wanted. They would only have to come in and gather books from orders online. Others at registers. Now we have to have some employees at the register, some employees walking around helping students, some taking orders for out of stock books, and some at the register.

Good Sentences

It’s a week before the beginning of another semester at BYU and the book list for your classes has just been posted. Now, you have a choice in front of you, do you go to the bookstore, fight the crowds in the aisles searching for each and every book on your list, wait in an eternally long line to pay for them and then bag them and carry the hundred pounds of books you just bought back to your apartment, OR search online for your books to save some time and a few dollars and then have to pay an exorbitant price for the 2-day shipping to get it delivered to your apartment in time for your first class. But, you can’t even go the online route because about half of the books on your list are BYU editions and are not sold anywhere other than in the BYU Bookstore so you have to fight the crowds at the bookstore anyway. In addition, when you go to sell back the books at the end of the semester, they have changed a few words in the edition you have now and are printing a new edition, so they won’t even take back the book you bought from them in the first place. While I agree that some things like syllabi and lecture notes will need to be bought in the bookstore, I think the system the bookstore has now is unfair to the students and it should be changed.
One solution could solve many of these problems all at once. The BYU Bookstore should offer an additional online service just for textbooks. This service could offer the ability to shop the bookstore online for your textbooks from the inventory in the bookstore and then the books you need could be waiting for you when you got to the bookstore and you could just pay for them and leave. This would solve the problems of fighting the aisles looking for every book. In addition this could be very beneficial to people who live far from the BYU campus, they could shop for their books from home and wouldn’t have to plan their travel around the bookstore but around themselves. Some might say that this would not be logical because this means the bookstore employees have to work harder while the students get it easy. However, the employees would not have to work harder, in fact it would be easier for them, most of the employees could work just about anytime they wanted. They would only have to come in and gather books from orders online and others at registers rather than having to have some employees at the register, some employees walking around helping students, some taking orders for out of stock books, and some at the register.

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