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To Rent or Not to Rent
04/04/08
College stores continually examine how they do business and turn to other retail methods to remain viable. One option is a textbook rental system, which has had much success for a handful of college stores. A CAMEX education session explained the pros and cons of jumping into the practice.
Bonnie Elmore, assistant manager-textbook rental at, SIUE Textbook Service, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, along with other managers of textbook rental programs across the country, offered insight, examples, and advice during the CAMEX 2008 educational session Textbook Rental Potpourri: a Sampling of Textbook Rental Programs. The SIUE program, which began at the inception of the University in 1965, is often held up as a shining example of how a rental program can work.
Elmore said she's already had about six phone calls since CAMEX 2008 from people wanting more information about how to start a rental program. Her dilemma is that she can't give a cut-and-dried answer.
"I really can't tell them how to start one," Elmore said. "You have to look at your school to determine what type of textbook rental program you can implement. No two rental programs are the same."
Some stores charge students by credit hours, some charge based on the book's retail price, and others determine the rental price based on each course. Certain schools offer rentals for almost every class while others pick and choose which courses best fit the rental option.
Overall, each presenter said there are a few issues that must be addressed for a store to succeed in the rental business.
For starters, the store has to have the support of the entire university, from the president down. Without that, it's difficult to get academic departments and individual professors to sign on, and all the effort to get the program running will be lost.
In Elmore's program, professors are told during the hiring interview process how the rental program works. If those professors show disdain for the program, it's likely they will not be hired. And professors must be willing to use the same book for at least a two- to three-year period. It's even better if an entire department can agree to use the same book for all sections of the course. The stores take a financial hit when a new book must be ordered, but can make up that money over the years, so keeping a title in circulation is imperative.
If a store runs into a professor or a department that opts out of the rental program, student pressure is a useful tool. Elmore said a group of nursing students became irate when their texts were taken off the rental list. After not getting answers they liked from professors and the department head, the students voiced their concerns to the provost. The next semester, that program was back in tune with the rental program.
After getting everyone on board for a rental program, a store has to determine which books it will offer as rentals. Every presenter in the CAMEX session said it is best to start with only a handful of books. These books likely come from the lower-level classes where stores can buy in quantity.
"Those basic classes, they don't change," Elmore explained.
Purchasing the selected books requires an investment on the store's part. In addition to seed money, storage for the product will also become a factor.
"You have to figure out how you're going to sort and store," Elmore said.
Once a store has the cooperation of the administration, money to start a program, storage for the books, and a pricing scale, the next step is setting up a point-of-sale system. Some stores use the same POS module as purchased books, while others implement their own system. Again, each store has to determine what is best for its type of program, Elmore said.
Yet another concern for stores is getting rented books returned. Some charge a larger amount up front for a book and offer a refund upon return. The school can also withhold grades or other items to encourage students to get their books back to the store. And policies must be in place for students who highlight, write in, or otherwise damage books.
Determining what to do with books once their lifecycle has ended is also up for debate. Elmore said they never throw books away. If they can't be sold on the Internet, they're donated to schools in need, jails, or any other institution that can use them.
Starting a rental program involves much thought and preparation, details are too diverse to apply to a simple template. But the rewards can be numerous, whether it's a better profit margin, satisfied customers, or even a recruiting tool.
If you are looking into starting a rental program, The NACS Store offers the Textbook Rental Compendium, a collection of information on textbook rental systems in higher education, and examples of how various college stores handle communication and administration of programs for their institutions. To access The NACS Store, go to www.nacs.org/nacs_store/. The item number for the Textbook Rental Compendium is 2649.
—Dan Pender
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