How other people unload books
Better World Books got some good publicity here in the New York Times.Started by some freshly minted Notre Dame graduates in 2002, it collects used books and textbooks from about 1,000 campuses and 700 libraries nationwide.One thing I wish would have been made clear in the article: Some of these "charities" are actually for-profit companies.
As an individual, you can donate if you pay for shipping yourself; but you can buy anything off its Web site and shipping is free anywhere in the country.
“It’s like 1,000 sidewalk sales rolled into one,” said a co-founder, Xavier Helgesen. He estimates that his organization receives about 15,000 used books a day and sells about 5,000 daily.
Some of the unusable books are recycled, many of the textbooks are sent to universities in Africa and of all the books that are sold, a certain percentage of each sale — it varies but ranges around 15 percent — goes to nonprofit partners promoting global literacy.
posted by Steve Weber at 6/25/2007
12 Comments:
I do believe they have an Amazon store as well (I am not 100% certain). And they lowball the heck out of everything.
They are a "social profit" company. I think this is a fancy way of saying that a small percentage of the profits go to charity.
It is great that they donate a portion of their proceeds to charity, promote literacy, and recycle worthless books. However, they never put a percentage on the profits that go to charity and what percentage of the profits go to the owners.
I wonder if students realize that that not all the proceeds go to charity?
I hope I don't sound like sour grapes here, but it seems like they put a fancy spin on the charity aspect to get people to donate books, while downplaying the fact that they are around to make a profit as well.
If you ask someone to donate something to charity as opposed to asking someone to donate something to a for profit company that gives a cut to charity, obviously you will get more donations with the former.
Read the FAQ section on their website. I would love to hear someone else's opinion. Am I judging to harshly?
As you said they won't disclose what percentage of profits are given to charity. I read on their website some time ago that they don't want to be a "not for profit company" because it "limits their flexibility". I think it's just so they don't have to disclose their numbers.
I've seen their promos to colleges to get them to donate books...it sure makes it seem like all the money is going to charity.
They're one of the major things wrong with bookselling today. All I want is an level playing field to compete with other booksellers.
This isn't a sour grapes thing...they've become pretty scumbaggish. Someone really needs to call them out on this.
They hav done the same thing with vending for years. They put a gumball machine in and say it benefits a certain organization but that organization only gets 10% of the profit. The owner of the machine gets everything else. People think they are contributing to the organization but it is a very small amount of the actual purchase. Ebay does is too. You can sell an item and part of the purchase price goes to the charity of your choice.
You can look at this another way too. Would you rather have a charity get 10 percent of something or 100 percent of nothing? How much do you give to charity each year? On the other hand I can't stand for-profits saying "a portion goes to...." I think they should say specifically and then send out a press release later telling just how much they collected for that charity.
Did anyone consider writing to the Times about this? Seems they pulled one over on the paper as well...
I think the reason this chaps us booksellers so is that what they are doing is no different than many other for-profit companies who are not touting their noble causes. I run a large used and antiquarian brick & mortar store that is competing in the pricing environment brought on by companies such as this one. I do not advertise my store as a charity-oriented business, but we do quite a bit of non-profit work (and not just games of Solitaire on the computer!): Just last week we hosted a charity library sale in which 100% of the profit from the donated books went to a local library. We currently have an entire storage unit dedicated to our to-be-donated books (a large percentage of which will be shipped at our cost out of country, by the way), sponsor reading programs, and frankly give as much back to the community as possible in this business. Do we recycle books? If they are damaged beyond repair or severely moldy, then of course we do, but otherwise we find a home for them (Yes, even the dreaded condensed novels!). Again, I am bragging on these things here not to preen but to prove a point--greedy corporate stereotypes aside, I'd venture to say that this is the standard amount of giving many other businesses do, especially book industries. Even if for no other reason, it is simply good business sense to unload stock which isn't selling, and if it can help someone else, all the better. Which brings up another point: if they get 15,000 books per day and only sell 5,000, what happens to the remaining 10,000? Books take up space very quickly...I guarantee that the majority of those are not saleable books and are thus recycled, but I bet that most donors would be horrified to learn the actual numbers. In my experience, "weeding" is the dirty little secret of most bookstores and libraries, and for Better World Books to candy coat it and downplay the numbers for marketing purposes is wrong.
I suppose it's not entirely a scam, but I'd want to see what kind of cars are in the parking lot at their building before making up my mind.
Here's a good one for you - they are charging _less_ on Amazon for "Practical Modern Crochet" by Vibeke Lind ($16.47) than on their own site ($25.98). I just happened to check that book because I have a copy (my own) near my desk. So even with the $3.49 shipping charge from Amazon and their own "free shipping within the country", you're better off ordering it _from_ Amazon. Does anyone besides me think that is _strange_?
I've seen Better World Books on Amazon, mostly penny listings on ex-library books. Since I rarely list an ex-library copy, this doesn't hurt me--except when new sellers price their good copies down!
This smells like a scam to me. If they are not up front with their
percentages--there must be a reason.
Good call from uncle pavian, re: checking out the parking lot. I recently cruised through the parking lot at the Work Development Center (AKA "corporate headquarters") of the local Goodwill stores. It was quite an eyeopener.
Clustered near the office entrance were at least two Jaguars, an Acura so new it didn't even have tags yet, and a generous sprinkling of other new and near-new high-end luxury vehicles. It was an impressive collection that would put the average medical or legal parking lot to shame.
It seems the used-junk "charity" (HAH) business is doing quite well for those who feed on the misery--I mean, so nobly labor on behalf-- of the downtrodden.
I wish the herds of sheep--I mean, general public--who continue to dutifully line up with armloads of tribute to lavish on these disgraces to true philanthropy, knew the real story.
Don't tell me they (Goodwill) "provide jobs to the jobless"! How is that different from any other employer? Goodwill is all about exploiting the disadvantaged with minimum wages to maximize their profit on what gets handed to them for FREE. Oh, and don't forget the tax-free, "non-profit" angle. A pretty sweet little racket, all in all.
They should be ashamed, in their shiny new Jags--but of course, their type never is.
Isn't it about time this gravy train got derailed?
Usually I don't get involved in these online discusions but this time I couldn't help myself.
I am a new bookstore owner, and am very proud to be! I have been doing extensive research for months and months now getting myself prepared to open and educate myself on the industry.
It seems alot of people inpaticular Brick-N-Mortor Bookstores have a very bad attitude against online bookstores and anything affiliated with them meaning sites such as Amazon, Half.com and others I think we all know what I mean. It is to my understanding that some wholesale distributors absolutely refuse to do business with a online store based on the fact the online bookstore is puting the Brick-N-Mortar companies out of business. It is sad to see anyone close a company they started, took over or even just worked as a basic employee.
I'm sorry people but isn't that all part of "business"? Hasn't it always been dog eat dog when it comes to business and making money? You have to struggle and work your tail off but yet we all want to act fake and make it sound like we care about other businesses.
Lets be truthfull when it comes to making your business strong and profitable, and finally you the owner can make a little money or for that matter what you really want is to make alot of money, the only thing that matters is yourself.
How long has the internet been around? It is almost like a household neccesatiy now. I am sure there are other companies that are based online that don't get the discrimination that these wholesalers are giving to the online booksellers. I may be wrong in this avenue but a very good example is Netflix. They came out with a wonderfull new idea and approach to renting movies. They took two important factors and decided how they could make it better than say Blockbuster. It wasn't too hard to figure out that in this busy world we like to sit and relax in front of a movie after a long hard day (or most everyone I know anyway) and they thought, how can we make it even better for the customer, order the movies online so they never have to go to the movie store and spend time walking around hoping they find what they want that is if they know what they want. The other big one is never have late fees again keep them as long as you want. My personal favorite!
My point is, aren't we all just out there to succeed in what ever business we are in. Competition is the biggest part of business. I'll admit I never liked to compete as a younger person to make myself look better than the other, I always wanted to be on the same level, a team player if one falls we all stop to help. Well as I got older I have learned the hard way that the rest of the world doesn't have that kind mentality. The rest of the world's mentality is for NUMBER 1, UNO, NUMERO!!!
Ok but at the same time the rest of the world wants to walk around and refuse sales to small people doing the same thing as they are succeeding, and surviving the world of business. Isn't that really what makes the world go around?
So the wholesaler is a huge company compared to the small online seller who by the way pays upfront cash for the services that the huge wholesaler would provide, thinks that buy refusing the sales will make them struggle even harder. How does one care about one and not the other when generally they are all in the same business. And the online company has to pay the price of taking advantage of a marketplace that was put there and started by a huge wholesale company or even most likely a Brick-N-Motor company. Did Mcdonalds get their vendors to refuse sales to Taco Bell or Burger King no they compete to this very day to stay in business.
If my store was doing so horribly after being in business for how ever long I would have to sit back and figure out what is the advantages these online bookstores have and quickly relize that the problem has a simple solution, cut alot of overhead costs. Online bookstores have the advantage of being very successful without having a actual store that has a rent payment most likely,utility bills,and gas to get back and forth everyday and then the general everyday business costs. Being successful still means you have to work your tale off so if I could do it all my self with out any employees wow how much I could save and put back into making my store one the highest competetors online as it was as a regular retail store before the bad bad internet took over and the horrible online bookstores took it all away!!!
But the online store is punished in this world of business that all of a sudden cares if other companies succeed. Ya I know those companies keep the big wholesalers in business but what do you think the online sellers would do? GIVE THEM MORE BUSINESS!! WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BUSINESS WETHER WE HAVE A BRICK-N-MORTAR STORE OR AN ONLINE STORE. ONE IS OBVIOUSLY A BIGGER BABY THAN THE OTHER AND DOESN'T LIKE CHANGE. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY PEOPLE! FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THE NECESSARY CHANGES WITHIN THE COMPANY!
I mean come on the wholesalers are selling online!
I don't care how it's done, if a customer is standing there with cash, or sitting on their but with a credit card, if they want to give my company money bring it on! I'm not going to refuse someone a book or books they want to purchase because times have changed and it may be hurting another bookseller!
Don't be the conquered be the overcomer! I have learned that everything in life will never come easy (for me that is) There for to maintain anything that is created will continue to be an ongoing battle that I will continue to fight and I will take down any obstacles that comes my way, presently,and in the future!
Who knows what will be the next big thing in technology to change the world like the BIG BAD INTERNET THAT BLEW THE BRICK-N-MORTAR STORES DOWN!!!
And on the note of the charities, besides the BRICK-N-MORTAR LADY who talked about her charity event that she held, At least they can give at all.
Since when did advertising start telling the complete truth about a company.
If there is enough time to worry so much about what percentage someone or some companies are paying into the charities they choose to support maybe that wasted time should be taken to do some actual hands on charity work! I don't have time no matter how much I would love to sit around and put companies down for the charity work they have done, rather than what they "make it sound like they do"!! Who's business is it what percentage goes to what charity, unless a customer has specifically put a certain dollar amount on a purchase to be donated!
Be real people isn't there other bigger things going on in this crazy world that can be focused on!!!
Agravated Bookstore Ownere
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