== Beat The Bookstore ==
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Well, it's payback time! College students have little money to spend, but they have many expenses. Tuition is unbearably high, and yet increasing. Living expenses can be equally daunting, but students perceive textbooks to represent the most infamous extortion of their money. It's not surprising that the majority of students distrust, dislike, and are frustrated by the campus bookstore. They perceive that the bookstore offers high prices, low buy-back values, and unacceptably poor service.

Beat The Bookstore's concept is very simple. It's centered on catering to students. We buy for more and sell for less, provide uncommon customer service, treat the students with respect, and have fun in the process. Our stores don't even look like a typical college bookstore. They have no high-priced junk, no fudge, no candy, no sweatshirts, no glassware, no decorative spoons, no trinkets, no pennants, no bumper stickers… and no apathetic managers or employees. They do have cheap textbooks and genuine respect for students.

Beat The Bookstore was founded by brilliant, handsome, visionary, entrepreneurs, Mike Winward and David Monk. Close friends for many years, Mike and David share a passion for changing the college textbook industry. These guys are obsessed with building a business that offers students everywhere a viable alternative to the campus bookstore. Although Mike and David have much in common, they have different and complementary strengths. David's wife often refers to Mike and David as the “kite” and “string.”

To Mike and David, it was obvious that the university-owned bookstores were gouging students unmercifully. They had a monopoly on college textbook sales, and each year the gouging was getting worse. The victims were America's college students.

Mike and David realized that together they had the skills and experience to take on the $7.7 billion college textbook industry where students were spending an average of $807 a year on books and supplies. They left the corporate world and opened Beat The Bookstore.

The opening of the store created an absolute frenzy. Students came by the hundreds. They sold their used books and bought new ones. As they left, they took stacks of business cards—left them all over campus and gave them to their friends. On the first day of class, professors told students they could buy books cheaper at Beat The Bookstore. Parking shuttle drivers announced it over the PA system. Employees at the campus information desk gave students directions to Beat The Bookstore and passed out business cards. The store was inundated with students. Even employees of the campus bookstore came in to buy and sell their textbooks. There were more customers than the store could handle—it was pure pandemonium!

Because of the insane response to their first store, Mike and David opened a second location in Utah . This store was received with the same furor as the first. Emboldened by the unrelenting clamor and spurred by the students' mandate for a more fair exchange of textbooks, Mike and David squealed like school girls and prepared for nationwide expansion.

The high cost of college textbooks has reached crisis proportions for many students. In the past two decades, textbook prices have risen a phenomenal 238%, while the price of consumer goods has risen only 51%. According to a National Association of College Stores study, U.S. students paid an average of $807 for books and supplies during 2002-2003, compared to $619 in 1999-2000. That's a 30% jump in only three years!

Traditional college bookstores are charging too much for textbooks and setting very small buy-back quotas and very short buy-back periods for used books. Often, they meet their quota on that first day of buy-back. If students don't make it to the bookstore on that first day, they're often out of luck. They may be offered an insulting pittance for the book or nothing at all

The demand for a more fair exchange of college textbooks is larger than immense. Students are hungry for an alternative to the school-owned bookstore. Many students have already patroned Internet booksellers as an alternative to buying from the campus bookstore. Unfortunately, these students are frequently frustrated by the lack of service, inaccuracy of order processing, shipping delays, and absence of legitimate return policies that are inherent among Internet booksellers.

Also, the Internet is inconvenient for students and unlikely to replace physical stores. Yet, given the severe problems with Internet booksellers, these companies have still managed to secure a portion of the college textbook market. Students are so desperate to find an acceptable alternative that when made aware of a new option, they pursue it aggressively.

Here is a list of the stores open and soon to be opening.

University of Utah
1330 East 200 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Just up from The Pie
(801) 582-4477

Utah Valley State College
1360 Sandhill Road
Orem, UT 84058
Next to Wal-Mart
(801) 226-4440

Weber State University
4305 Harrison Blvd. #8
Ogden, UT 84405
Next to Smith's
(801) 475-5828

Salt Lake Community College
4523 S. Redwood Rd.
Salt Lake City, UT 84123
(801) 263-1970

University of Iowa
201 S. Clinton St. Suite 111
Iowa City, IA 52240
Old Capitol Mall
(319) 466-0800

San Jose State University
110 Paseo de San Antonio
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 275-9333

University of Nevada
Las Vegas
4632 South Maryland Parkway, #1
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(702) 454-BOOK (2665)

University of Colorado
1135 Broadway Suite A1
Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 442-5280

University of Missouri,
St. Louis
8947 Natural Bridge Rd.
St. Louis MO 63121
(314) 426-7603

East Carolina University
1011-C Charles Boulevard
Greenville, NC 27858
(252) 353-BEAT (2328)

Utah State University
505 East 1400 North
Suite 150
Logan, UT 84341
(435) 752-0369

University of Idaho
317 W Sixth St #108
Moscow ID 83843
(208) 882-2905

University of Kansas
Opening April 2007

University of Houston
Opening TBA

University of California Davis
Opening TBA

University of California Berkeley
Opening TBA

DeAnza College
Opening TBA

University of Nevada Reno
Opening TBA

Community College of
Southern Nevada
Opening TBA

Boise State University
Opening TBA

Colorado State University
Opening TBA

University of Missouri, Columbia
Opening TBA

University of North Carolina
Opening TBA

University of Texas
2025 Guadalupe #146A
Austin, TX 78705
Dobie Mall
(512) 499-1559

Miami Dade College, Kendall
10549 SW 109th Court
Miami, FL 33176
(305) 273-4271

University of Georgia
510-B Baxter St.
Athens, GA 30605
Across from Brumby
(706) 354-6900

University of Tennessee
1711 Cumberland Ave.
Knoxville, TN 37916
On the Strip, Across from Krystal
(865) 522-2222

University of Arizona
1712 E Speedway Blvd.
Tuscon, AZ 85719
(520) 881-BEAT (2328)

University of California
Santa Barbara
900 Embacadero Del Mar
Suite E
Isla Vista, CA 93117
(805) 562-8100

Florida Atlantic University
1501 NW Boca Raton Blvd.
Boca Raton FL 33432
(561) 392-9495

University of Oklahoma
1217 W. Lindsey St.
Norman, OK 73069
(405) 329-7900

Middle Tennessee State University
2826 Middle Tennessee Blvd
Murfreesboro TN 37130
Corner of Greenland Drive & Middle Tennessee Blvd
(615) 216-6328

Bowling Green State University
Opening April 2007
902 E. Wooster St.
Bowling Green, OH 43402
Corner of S. College and E. Wooster
(419) 354-BGSU (2478)

Cal Poly Pomona
Opening May 2007
3560 Temple Ave, Suite G
Pomona, CA, 91768
By Carl's Jr.
(909) 595-8530

Arizona State University
Opening TBA

Iowa State University
Opening TBA

Illinois State University
Opening TBA

University of Illinois
Opening TBA

Southern Illinois University
Opening TBA

Florida State University
Opening TBA

Virginia Tech
Opening TBA