UPDATE: The Bookstore read my blog post, kinda incredible, and is editing the banner. That’s pretty sweet.  Incredible customer service is more valuable to me than a few bucks.  Especially when they incorporate social media into the mix…

MU Bookstore Rocks the Social Media

Now back to the original post:

University bookstores are famous for ripping off students with their prices for required texts.  For instance.  To buy all my books, this semester, new, from the University of Missouri Bookstore, it would cost me $266.85, $287 with tax.  So how does that play out against Amazon.com?

I normally wouldn’t have felt the need to post this, but today I saw an ad on the MU Bookstore website that got me going.

First off, it does its due diligence and shows Amazon.com’s cheaper price.  That was a good move.  However.  While the Bookstore felt the need to add shipping to the Amazon.com price, they sure didn’t feel the need to add sales tax to the Bookstore price.

Do the math and you find that Amazon.com is still cheaper.

Now, what if you already bought something from Amazon like, your textbooks, a CD or nearly anything else that costs $3.83 or more?  Or if you are like me and have Amazon.com Prime… What the cost of the book?

So, there you go.  The Bookstore can charge all they want for books as long as Half.com, Amazon.com and the rest are still around.  And I’ll probably still buy my book from the Bookstore because I know at least SOME of the money goes to help my academic experience be the best it can be, like the new amazing new Bookstore facilities we just got.

Just please, don’t advertise something that’s so misleading like this.  Ok, time to get off this rant and… go to the Bookstore to buy my text books 😛