Does the bookstore make a 25% profit on textbooks?
No, not at all. A bookstore pays approximately 75% of the retail price of a new textbook to the publisher and uses the remaining 25% to pay for the expenses of selling it. Expenses include freight costs; the cost of the personnel needed to collect and research faculty textbook requests, and to order, receive, price, shelve, sell, and return unsold textbooks; and the cost of facilities, insurance, utilities, equipment, and other items. Additionally, the college receives a percentage of sales from the bookstore. The money the college receives is used to help fund all college initiatives. What’s left over, about 4.5% according to NACS, is actually the store’s before-tax profit.
