Word: coops
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...what, exactly, does the Coop maintain it is in the business...
...Insignia items, for one, which are quite easily hawked to tourists with a psycho-erotic attraction to Harvard. Still, the Coop doesn't turn a profit. Don't you think J. August and the Harvard Shop might be willing to pick up the slack as replacement retailers for those products...
...School supplies, second, which beside being wholly inadequate, don't do much for the student pocketbook as the Coop specializes in $500 pens. Surely, Bob Slate and the two CVS's in Harvard Square might be able to supply students with needed items...
...Books. Discounting the relatively pathetic selection offered on its two lower floors, the Coop is still heralded as the textbook king (a.k.a. monopolist textbook hoarder). Why? Harvard gives the Coop a monopoly on the needed texts for all of its classes, except when the professor chooses to purchase elsewhere. Wouldn't it make sense to supply reading lists and class enrollments to all the local bookstores so that students would benefit from price competition...
...Coop must die the death of an anachronism and pass from our midst. Its recent acquiescence to turn over the management of its operations to Barnes & Noble provides a case in point. Within one year of privatizing operations, the Coop's costs of advertising, data processing and employee salaries and benefits have declined. Isn't it surprising that a firm interested in making a profit will prevent excess spending! Obviously, the Coop hasn't learned that lesson. And to judge from the its less-than-helpful permanent sales clerks, management isn't taking any pains to enforce capitalist dictates...