Are student prices, really discounts?

by Eric Yuen | March 11, 2009 at 08:26 pm

1137 views | 2 Recommendations | 4 comments

Products sold at student prices are suppose to benefit students, especially university students, but do they? In addition to the high tuition fees students are charged, university stores are selling their products at a much higher price than retailers and online stores in Canada.

At the Simon Fraser University Bookstore, most of the products are sold overpriced than retailer stores (e.g. Office Depot and Best Buy). Most of the brand new and used books they sell cost much more than what Amazon.ca sells them for. The SFU bookstore has this to say on the high price textbooks: “The price of learning materials is due to the specialized information they contain and the limited market they serve.” (SFU Bookstore, n.d.) Yeah right. Go to Amazon.ca and search for the same book and, sometimes, you find a brand new book for a cheaper price than buying a used one at SFU! (Though this is, of course, not for all books, and may vary, depending on the subject and author. )

The SFU microcomputer store, claims to offer some unbeatable discounts on software and computer accessories. However, computers and computer components cost the same or more than other retailers. SFU store’s policy states they special order most of the products they sell, which is “providing solutions to YOUR needs” at educational prices. (SFU microcomputer store, n.d.) Furthermore, on their website, they state: “Many manufacturers of computer hardware and software offer special discount for educational institutions. We pass these savings to you.” (SFU microcomputer store, n.d.) But do you trust them? As an example, Best Buy and SFU microcomputer store both sell an iMac 20” Intel Core 2.66GHz Computer for $1,349.99. But Best Buy earns commission and a huge profit from selling the iMac at that price, and there is always the possibility that the store manager can offer you a REAL special discount. Another example is the iPod Nano 8GB. SFU sells it for $169; when you can purchase it for $149.99 at Best Buy!

As a SFU student, I wonder how much money SFU profits from students, on top of the high tuition fees we also pay. They may provide solutions to our needs, but the prices do not match our needs. If you are planning to purchase something from a school store, research thoroughly before purchasing. Student prices are not really discounts, but the same or even more expensive compared to other retailers.

Bibliography:

Simon Fraser University Microcomputer Store. Retrieved on March 11th, 2009. From:

http://www.microstore.sfu.ca/aboutus.htm

Simon Fraser University Bookstore. Retrieved on March 11th, 2009. From:

http://www2.sfu.ca/bookstore/coursebooks/coursebooks.html

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David_Hui

at 11:36 on March 12th, 2009

I totally agree. It is unreasonable for students to pay a huge amount of money for books

Jesse Shen (not verified)

at 16:18 on March 13th, 2009

"But Best Buy earns commission and a huge profit from selling the iMac at that price, and there is always the possibility that the store manager can offer you a REAL special discount."

No.

What... No!

Did you even do research for this paper of yours? Or did you pull all your "facts" out of your ass.

BestBuy, or any retailer aside from Apple themselves, do not make any real profit at all from Apple products. Markups on regular window computers are generally $50-$100, and markups on Apple computers are generally less. Same goes with Apple iPods. The profit margins are tiny on those things for Bestbuy, they make $10 maybe on an iPod? All their real revenue from selling Apple products comes from service plans, setups and most importantly accessories.

And no, managers can not give you "real" discounts, because there is none. There is no wide profit margins for them to work with in order to give you a discount on Macs or any computers in their stores.

How do I know this? I used to work at Bestbuy, in the computer department, namely the Mac section, so I know most of the store prices by heart. And these "facts" you seem to have, are complete bullshit.

Also, Apple products are cheaper at the Microstore, because all campus retailers are allowed to sell Apple products at Educational prices. The only time you might see retailers selling Macs and iPods cheaper, is when the store puts them on a special sale, but even then, because of the thin profit margins on these things, those discounts are hardly much compared to the educational prices.

The same applies for most software as well. Companies such as Adobe, Apple, Microsoft all release student and education version of all their main software, at huge discounts. It's those versions that all campus retailers carry.

Take Final Cut Studio 2 for example.

The regular priced version is $1500.
http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MA886Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjY5MDg

The Academic version, which is exactly the same thing, but priced for students, is almost half the price at $880.
http://store.apple.com/ca_edu_108165/product/MA891Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjQ0MDg4MA&p=1&s=topSellers

Learn to properly research stuff when writing your papers, because if all you do is pull random "facts" out of thin air, then you're not meant for a long and prosperous educational career.

raymondchiang

at 02:10 on March 14th, 2009

I agree with your view on the Bookstore prices but your argument about computers and electronics is wrong.

Educational pricing, although often still overpriced, does make a difference with computers. The Microcomputer Store sells Macs at Apple's educational pricing (which honestly isn't much lower than normal prices) while Best Buy sells Macs at normal retail prices. If a price at Best Buy is lower, the item is either on sale, on clearance, or they are not following the normal pricing but even then, there isn't much of a discount on Apple products. The difference is usually negligible.

Computers make little to no money for retail stores. If a computer is drastically reduced, it's definitely being sold at a loss. Stores make their money on attachments which is why they always hassle customers for extended warranties and accessories. If you want a good deal on an Apple product, get a refurbished one from Apple's online store -- other than missing the fancy packaging, they have full 1 year warranties so they're just like new anyway...just cheaper.

iPods are more expensive at SFU because the Microcomputer Store follows Apple's standard pricing. Most retail stores sell iPods at a slightly lower price (not sure why they started doing that).

Educational software prices have huge differences. Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate is $64 when purchased from Microsoft's "Ultimate Steal" promotion as opposed to $899.99 at Future Shop. Office 2008 for Mac is $97 at the Microcomputer Store and $199.99 at Future Shop. Microsoft's DreamSpark program gives away many expensive products such as Windows Server for free to students -- I don't see that happening at any retailers. SFU's School of Computing Science (and probably some other schools as well) is part of the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance so CS students can also get free copies of certain programs and operating systems. And all this is just Microsoft products...There are many more companies that offer big discounts for students.

"Student prices are not really discounts, but the same or even more expensive compared to other retailers."

I would do more research before buying stuff if I were you.

SFU Microcomputer Store (not verified)

at 15:22 on April 4th, 2009

Thanks for voicing your concerns, Eric. Please allow me to explain our pricing policy at the store.
Lower pricing comes in two forms: education discounts given by individual manufacturers, and lower markup rates.
Examples of manufacturers that give education discounts are Apple, Dell, Logitech, Microsoft, and Adobe. They sell their products at a lower cost to campus stores, compared to other retailers. And in Apple's case, they set the education price as well - campus stores cannot deviate from this price without authorization.
Lower markup rates make up a large percentage of the products we sell that are cheaper than regular retail. Examples of this in action are:- Griffin iPhone/iPod cases are about 50% cheaper than FS/BB- Tucano notebook cases are about 25% cheaper than LD- Logitech accessories are at least 20% cheaper on average than MSRP- Cables (network, USB, Firewire, component, composite, HDMI, DVI, VGA, etc.) are up to 90% cheaper than FS/BB/LD.
Our profit margin for computer systems is extremely thin... between $20 and ~$100.
Apple doesn't offer education discounts on iPods, but offer a small volume discount to the big box retailers, so that's why it's often cheaper to buy iPods elsewhere.
You said BB and SFU both sell the 20" iMac for $1349. Were you comparing the same models? BB was discounting the ***old*** MB324LL/A by $100 off regular retail, and SFU's price was for the ***new*** MB417LL/A. The new model has a better graphics processor, mini-DisplayPort output, and supports DDR3 SDRAM.
For Dell's, SFU's prices are even lower than the prices on Dell Canada's education website. Please drop by the store if you'd like us to prepare a personlized quote for you.
Software cost a lot less from SFU because we have license agreements with many manufacturers. We buy volume licenses, and are able to negotiate incredible prices that you're not able to find anywhere else. e.g. Adobe CS4 products and MS Office suites have up to 80% off discounts. We're also able to shave the cost of retail packaging (the fancy boxes) and shipping by selling only the CD/DVD without the box, manual, etc., and in some cases, offering software as downloads off our secure website.
Our prices are extremely competitive, and we encourage you and your readers to come see us for all your campus and personal technology needs. Our non-commissioned staff will give you honest opinion and help you find products that suit your needs, in a no-pressure, comfortable and friendly shopping environment.