Parents slow to buy textbooks

There were hardly any crowds shopping for back to school items, at bookstores in the capital yesterday. Bookstore owners could not say whether this was due to Government’s introduction of a textbook rental programme or because parents were waiting on the last-minute to secure books.

A manager of Ishmael M Khan and Sons Ltd said sales were “just as usual.”

A few shoppers were seen bustling in the textbook area making purchases of textbooks, bags, stationery and school uniforms. The manager said the rush for books tend to occur around the end of July or August when she believed parents received their salaries.

At the trading booths in Woodford Square only a few shoppers were spotted enquiring about prices. Traders gave the reason for dwindling sales as the upgrading of text books to new editions, which they claim, are “really the old books with new covers.”

One trader said the regular upgrading of textbooks puts used-book sellers at a financial disadvantage, since parents who would prefer to buy used books end up having to purchase new books at established stores.

Sharon Scott of Maloney told Newsday she has been selling used textbooks over a number of years and believes that publishers are claiming to upgrade textbooks to newer editions but have not changed the contents.

Scott said after she examined the fourth and fifth editions of a geography book written by Vohn AM Rahil, she concluded that they were both the same.

This, Scott said, has caused parents to purchase the same book, only with a new cover and higher price. Jocelyn Bodden, chief executive officer, of RIK Services Ltd, said there was usually not much of a difference between new and old editions of textbooks. She said when a new edition of a book was introduced, publishers would take back copies of the old editions.