Bookstore Sounding Board
I don't have a question...I just wanted to let you know how much I LOVE the BYU Book Exchange. It's quick, easy and extremely convenient! Thank you for this valuable resourse.
And we thank you for taking the time to write. Anything else we can do for you?(Posted 9/4/2007)
I went into the bookstore two days ago to look for a water bottle, and ended up finding TY Girlz (www.tygirlz.com) instead. I like to call them "hooker dollz" because they look like prostitutes. Why does the BYU bookstore think it's alright to sell these dolls? They encourage young girls to dress like trash and wear make up like Pam Anderson. If a BYU student dressed that way there would be some harsh repercussions. I doubt that Cecil O. would approve. Let's get it together, folks.
Ahhh, the doll problem. And you are surely right. If a BYU woman came to campus with blue hair like Sassy Star’s or a skirt as short as Lovely Lola’s, the Honor Code people would soon be involved. They also might want to talk with any girl dressed in many of Barbie’s outfits. Thinking about it, anyone with a frame and body build like Barbie may come under some negative scrutiny from a variety of sources. We carry these dolls for the same reason we carry Stephanie Meyer’s romance books involving vampires and werewolves, who surely would not be invited to attend here or a number of other universities. Some people choose these particular kinds of fantasies while others don’t. We sincerely hope you can find here what you seek, and we harbor the same desire for others. Paying attention to legal and moral limits, the Bookstore has a tradition of endorsing agency in its merchandise mix.(Posted 9/4/2007)
You mentioned that you sell Guarana and that it does not include caffeine on the list of ingredients. Guaranine, theine, mateine are all official synonyms for caffeine. Take your pick. This drink has much more caffeine than colas. Do you still sell it? Like Mormon tea historically was just another plant that hadn't been placed on the official banned list.
We apologize for taking so long to respond, but we had homework to do. Dr. Jennifer Nielsen, a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who specializes in organic chemistry, helped us. She researched guaranine and reported the following: I searched the MSDS data base for guaranine (Material Safety Data Sheet: a snapshot of the structure and physical data of a compound) and found it under caffeine. Other names for caffeine are: 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, 1-methyltheobromine, 7-methyltheophylline, methyltheobromide, 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione, 1,3,7-trimethyl-2,6-dioxopurine, theine, caffein, coffeine, thein, guaranine, No-doz, Eldiatric C, 1,3,7-trimethyl-2,6-dioxo-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropurine, and caffenium. I searched all of BYU's science journals (about 20) and found only two references to guaranine. The articles are in German journals and are only in print, not electronic form. I was going to go to the library, but I haven't yet and I am not sure it is worth it. No one does research on guaranine, because they don't call it that. It is caffeine. And there is research galore on caffeine. I think we should pursue the whole issue now as a call for the return of caffeinated sodas on campus. But my reasonable, temple-attending person will not be heard. And I don't even love colas. Except guarana. Take a bow, David. Although not listed with the ingredients on Guarana, caffeine indeed is included in the drink in the form of guaranine. Do we still sell Guarana? In the name of providing an authentic cultural connection with Brazil as well as maintaining solid and friendly international relations with 185 million Brazilians, we do. We also carry it because of numerous requests by returned missionaries from the approximately 28 missions in that country. And we continue to carry chocolate in many of its forms.(Posted 8/22/2007)
In regards to the question asked by Clayton Johnson, posted on 10 July 2007, I would like to know what the challenges are in selling textbooks online to students at a university the size of BYU. Thank you for any insight you can give to this situation.
The two biggest hurdles are personnel and space. Personnel. The busiest times of the year are the beginnings of semesters. Regular employees are overloaded and we have to hire on-call people to meet the increased demands of serving thousands of customers. It is already a challenge to find enough on-call employees who can work all day for a short two-week period. Most people just don’t have completely empty days where they can work for half a month. Digging up even more people to run to the textbook shelves, pick out lists of individual orders, collect them together, box and mail them is a labor-intensive activity in a tough hiring market. Space. As large as the text department seems, we use every square foot at the beginnings of semesters. We will need space and shelves to collect the orders plus an area where we can have packing supplies to prepare the books for shipment. We remind you, as we reminded Clayton Johnson, that we are considering an online textbook service, but we currently are not set up to offer it and are trying to find ways to overcome the obstacles it presents. The biggest ones remain personnel and space, but they are not the only challenges.(Posted 8/22/2007)
1) Why is there a police officer on the textbook floor during buyback time, but not during textbook purchasing time? That is suspicious. It almost looks like you expect students to get angry over getting a raw deal! Shouldn't patrons at the "Lord's bookstore" just be willing to take whatever gets doled out from on high? 2) Last semester I bought a used book for one of my classes. During buybacks, they were willing to take the book, but--whoops!--there was no CD to go with it. The edition hadn't changed, they were being re-purchased, but as it had been sold to me sans CD, the bookstore would not take it back. Suggestion: Apart from the case of changing editions, don't sell books in a condition such that you aren't willing to re-purchase them when the time comes. The vernacular for this situation is: "Getting shafted."
1) As intriguing as your reason is, we do not bring in the law during buyback to prevent wide-eyed, neck-bulging mayhem. The officer is present because thousands of financial transactions take place during that time. If you look around during One Stop, you’ll spot a cop there for the same reason. 2) Nick, if we sold you a textbook without a CD, that same book is being used next semester, and you brought it to buyback before our quota for used books was reached, you can expect we will buy it back without the CD. Please call the textbook manager, Tom Hirtzel, at 422-6789 to set up an appointment so we can take care of this for you.(Posted 8/14/2007)
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