UT students looking for a good buy on textbooks may find a number of Web sites selling textbooks, with walmart.com becoming one of the more recent competitors.
Since the closing of Bevo's Bookstore and Texas Textbooks, the University Co-Op remains the only local business that stocks textbooks for UT students. Those looking for alternative prices for textbooks, however, may visit Web sites such as www.walmart.com, www.varsitybooks.com and www.amazon.com to purchase textbooks.
Even with the alternative of online bookstores, however, students across the nation by-and-large still shop at campus bookstores, said Laura Nakoneczny, public relations director for the National Association of College Stores.
"National online-only textbook sounded like it would be a wonderful thing; in reality it hasn't been popular," she said.
Only 6 percent of textbooks are bought online, she said, and of that amount, the majority of the sites are online versions of brick-and-mortar campus bookstores.
Nakoneczny said there are a number of aspects that make online book- buying inconvenient for students. Among them are the fact that students must still purchase course packets from physical bookstores, and many students find the return policies of online retailers inconvenient.
Cynthia Lin, a spokeswoman with walmart.com, said the store's site is convenient because it has 300,000 textbooks in stock and those books may be returned at local Wal-Mart stores, instead of having to be shipped back.
"If the book is not what you need, you can drop it off and return it to your local Wal-Mart store," she said.
Studentmarket.com works through online retailers such as amazon.com and half.com and posts competing prices for individual books, allowing shoppers to find the cheapest books online, said Oren Milgram, director of student services with the Web site studentmarket.com.
"We decided we could provide students with lower prices by providing a service that compares prices at several competing book stores, saving students time and money," he said.
Aaron Stanush, an advertising senior, enjoys using the Co-Op's Web site to purchase his textbooks. By entering his unique numbers online, he was able to have his books ready to be picked up in one trip to the bookstore.
"I liked it because I didn't have to go to the store and actually pick out the books," he said.
Conor Brooke, a theater and education senior, said for any given semester, he will shop for books at the Co-Op, online at amazon.com, and will even check out the books from libraries to save money.
"I do everything," he said.
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