Oh hey freshman carrying two very heavy-looking Labyrinth bags. What’s that? Oh, you like playing exorbitant prices for books that you’ll read ten pages of and never look at again?
For those of you who don’t wallpaper their rooms with euros or enjoy shilling top-shelf prices for absorbing titles like “Fundamentals of Microeconomics, Fifth Edition, with Special Accompanying Compact Disc You Realistically Won’t Ever Open,” take this piece of advice: Don’t buy from Labyrinth.
Yeah I guess buying books at Labyrinth would be cool, if it weren’t for the fact that Amazon has all the books you need, for a fraction of the price, and you don’t even need to schlep from Nassau with a crapload of volumes you won’t need for another four weeks. You won’t have to mess with the lines, or the humans, if that’s a sticking point for you. (Also, ever notice you can’t talk on the phone in there? Who are these people?)
Plus, now Amazon is offering a free one-year membership to its Prime service for college students (that’s you!), which means that you get free 2-day shipping for practically all the books you’re going to be ordering from them. Check the offer out here.
So, freshman with tired arms, I implore you, take those books back. There’s some fundamental microeconomics for you.
But if Labyrinth does not sell books, Labyrinth will cease to exist. Then we won’t have an academic bookstore in this college town. Which strikes me as a problem. It’s like food: you pay a little more, and you buy local. And you get there early enough to buy your books before all the used copies are sold out. And then you pick up the 20% discount and get cheap remainders all year round. And oh, there’s also no shipping.
Emily – What is the problem of not having an academic book store in town if everyone is using Amazon.com/other websites anyway?
If Labyrinth Books closes and everyone is shopping online, does it make a sound?