Book rental sites are available, how it gonna affects bookstores?
By clorissa123
@clorissa123 (4926)
United States
August 15, 2009 11:17pm CST
Here is the question, on average, how much an average college student spend on his/her textbooks in one semester? Maybe around $700 to $1,000? That is not cheap, and it might increase your finance burden along the way if you still borrowing money for your education. Thanks to Chegg.com, the pioneer of online book rental site. Now, you could find more textbooks rental sites online, such as bookrentals.com, campusbookrentals.com are all available for student to select their textbooks, and been shipped to their doorsteps, just like the idea of netflix. I just wonder how much it will affect the bookstores business all around the country? I will support this idea all the way.
2 responses
@sysdexlicwriter (1619)
• United States
17 Aug 09
This is possible great news for all those in our family who are in college at the moment. It seems that the cost of the books is beyond unreasonable. At first when I read your post, I thought you were talking about books in general and I wondered why someone would not just go to the local library. I love the way companies keep coming up with new ideas. I think this is a great one!
@revellanotvanella (4033)
• United States
16 Aug 09
Oh cool, I knew about book rental sites but never heard you could rent textbooks, is it JUST for students, that would suck because Im not currently a student but I've been wanting to read up on British history and the campus bookstore here has used ones for 60$, I'm also a parent too, did I mention that 
, so its more of a luxury when your taking care of family. I would love to be able to rent it though are the rates reasonable? But now that I thought about it I just wondered if I could get my local library to borrow a book from the university for me, that would be cool, and free, the library system allows you to borrow books out of state but not sure about on campus. Is the service reliable? I do not think it will affect bookstores though--the only thing affecting bookstores is peoples wallets (and their empty). I go to my local bookstore four times a week (no really, i dont know how they stand me, lol) and I've seen things change soo much just in the years or so. Before the elections it was like you expect a big chain bookstore to be, not real busy but business was steady. Then business started changing where certain days were soo busy and others slow and busy around the holiday which is normal but people weren't really buying, just hanging out in the cafe. That was a trend beginning to pick up and about a month before the elections it took off. Before I could usually find at least one seat in the cafe because people would come and go but now people stay a couple hours. I just do not think people are buying though, not steadily (except us bookworms who cant help ourselves), its just something to do. The biggest thing that helped bookstores though in the past year is the Twilight though, BIG! They had alot of Twilight parties at the bookstore and now their really struggling to keep appealing to teens. Sci-fi books in general took off so much after Twilight but the book store just did a big shuffle in the store and made the kid section half toystore. Now you can get boardgames, puzzles, science progects, bakugan, larger stuff toy selection, heck, umbrellas, girls get plastic horse kits, I really was surprised. I understand what their up against but its something im getting used to because I have to keep reminding my kids were in a bookstore and they need to concentrate on books. There is two huge aisles of anime and manga too. Even though book rentals websites are something that have been around I still do not think they have taken off but I do think the textbook rental concept has appeal.
, so its more of a luxury when your taking care of family. I would love to be able to rent it though are the rates reasonable? But now that I thought about it I just wondered if I could get my local library to borrow a book from the university for me, that would be cool, and free, the library system allows you to borrow books out of state but not sure about on campus. Is the service reliable? I do not think it will affect bookstores though--the only thing affecting bookstores is peoples wallets (and their empty). I go to my local bookstore four times a week (no really, i dont know how they stand me, lol) and I've seen things change soo much just in the years or so. Before the elections it was like you expect a big chain bookstore to be, not real busy but business was steady. Then business started changing where certain days were soo busy and others slow and busy around the holiday which is normal but people weren't really buying, just hanging out in the cafe. That was a trend beginning to pick up and about a month before the elections it took off. Before I could usually find at least one seat in the cafe because people would come and go but now people stay a couple hours. I just do not think people are buying though, not steadily (except us bookworms who cant help ourselves), its just something to do. The biggest thing that helped bookstores though in the past year is the Twilight though, BIG! They had alot of Twilight parties at the bookstore and now their really struggling to keep appealing to teens. Sci-fi books in general took off so much after Twilight but the book store just did a big shuffle in the store and made the kid section half toystore. Now you can get boardgames, puzzles, science progects, bakugan, larger stuff toy selection, heck, umbrellas, girls get plastic horse kits, I really was surprised. I understand what their up against but its something im getting used to because I have to keep reminding my kids were in a bookstore and they need to concentrate on books. There is two huge aisles of anime and manga too. Even though book rentals websites are something that have been around I still do not think they have taken off but I do think the textbook rental concept has appeal. 