Word: coops
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...Coop, however, is in a league all its own when it attempts (unnecessarily) to provide students with goods and services which they do not want, doing so inefficiently and at noncompetitive prices. The Coop has--believe it or not--discovered that students aren't buying its tailored clothing, shoes, "fashionable" items, computer hardware, televisions, stereos or cameras. It promises to take them off the floor this year. Regarding its other items, however, the Coop still lives in retail fantasy land. Delusions of un-coerced sales are the only thing keeping it from shutting down...
...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...