Bookstore Monopoly

My paper is about the bookstore and how, when it comes to text books, it is a monopoly. I am recommending ways to make its policies fair for all students.

Most college students are relatively poor and cannot waste their money or they will not have enough money for other necessities. It is a growing trend for students to order their books online instead of buying them from the book store in order to save money. There are numerous websites dedicated to ordering books from stores and students across the nation. There are also general shopping websites online like eBay or Amazon where books can also be located. The only problem with using these websites to order books at a cheaper price is the time it takes for the books to get to the student. Generally students need to read the books for a class during the first few weeks of that class in order to get good grades at the very beginning. This is a problem, however, because BYU and the BYU Bookstore do not post the book list for each student early enough for the books ordered online to reach the student before classes begin. This also causes the bookstore to be a monopoly because there is not sufficient time to try to get books at a cheaper price online. In order for the Bookstore to be fair to the students at BYU, the booklist needs to be posted at least several weeks before classes begin. This also would give the students who do not have a car enough time to go to another store to compare prices to make the best deal. This way, the students would be able to save money if they so chose, even though the school could potentially make less money.

When used clothing is sold to a second-hand store, the well-kept and gently used clothes are taken for more money than the clothes which appear worn and damaged. This is because shoppers will be willing to pay more for the nicer clothes than for the worn clothes. This same idea should be implemented when selling books back to the bookstore. Those who keep their books clean and well-kept should be given a higher price when they sell them back to the bookstore. The books which have highlighting and writing in them should be bought back for a lesser price, and in turn, should be sold back to students for a cheaper price. This gives incentive to take care of books, and it also allows students to decide if they would rather pay more money for a nicer book, or pay less money for a book with writing in it.

Do my arguments make sense and are they strong enough to convince administrators? I tried to use logos when talking about how these new policies make more sense for the students.