Employee Ashana Singh helps Jon Behlke in the bookstore.

By Alicia Seewald (Whetstone staff writer)

Students buying books for classes are struggling with the demanding prices at Wesley’s bookstore and are searching elsewhere for a smaller bill.

Junior Courtney Hawkins spent $900 on books this semester.

“It’s hard to pay for books when you are only working for minimum wage,” Hawkins said.

Other students are also finding it difficult to routinely pay for expensive textbooks.

“For the [few books] that I buy here, they are expensive,” said senior Heather Helmer. “I bought 10 [books] for 2 classes for only $177 online and then I bought three here and they were $123 just because we needed the right edition.”

With seven semesters under her belt, Helmer has finding cheaper books down to a science. She suggests borrowing books from a friend who has taken the class or visiting www.half.com to save money.

“Even at bookstores you can get them cheaper than at Wesley,” said Helmer.

However, for the students that are intent on buying the exact model, edition, cover and page numbers for each and every class, the bookstore at Wesley remains their source. The bookstore helps students on a first come first serve basis.

“The sooner the better because used books are cheaper,” said manager Kris Mcglothlin.

There is not much else the store can do, she said. According to Mcglothlin, the bookstore is on a mandatory margin that does not allow them to set the price of the books.

“The biggest thing we can do is sell used books and buy books back,” Mcglothlin said. “We also try to work with professors to make sure the picked material is necessary because packages make us sell a new book.”

Most students do not feel that selling their books back is worth it. They often receive less than 40 percent of the original price.

“I try to sell my books,” said senior Debbie Witte. “Sometimes I can’t, but the ones I find useful I try to keep. Even if I do sell it back I don’t get the full price.”