Bookstore Blues… or Lack Thereof

Classes started last week, and today I went to pick up my textbooks. I always go a few days after the first day of classes, as the rush to buy books dies down a bit. Anyways, I had a psychology book I was looking to get rid of also. I looked online at the college bookstore's web site to see if there were any psychology classes using the book. As far as I saw, there weren't any. So I went to the bookstore to see for myself. They always have an external bag check in the cafeteria during the first couple of weeks of classes due to the obviously high demand. I went to take out the book I was looking to sell and put away some more stuff into my bag. I did this at a table near the end of the queue, in the 90 seconds it took for me to have everything ready, the queue had doubled in size. So I get on and check my bag in. Then I go downstairs to the bookstore, and I discover another queue. This one was to get into the bookstore itself. And this was a LONG one. It was moving as if it were a ride at an amusement park, letting 10 to 18 people in every 3 or 4 minutes. A person could take 3 round trips on the Franklin Avenue Shuttle in the time it would take to stand on that queue. Then I noticed that the bookstore's "back door," the entrance to the buyback and online order office, was empty. Since I intended to sell the book I was holding, I jumped in there. Another lady in front of me had two books she was looking to sell. Two books, purchased for classes presumably in the spring, and both returned no value. My one book returned $34, about 39% of the price I originally paid for it, but at least I got something for it. To complete the buyback process, i.e. get the cash, a person needs to give the receipt issued at the buyback desk to the cashier, who dispenses the money. Once I did that, I went back to the books. I grabbed the book I needed for my computer science class and paid for it. I left the bookstore with my book while the folks were still on the queue. My psychology book was the "extra passenger" I needed to use the book store's "car pool lane."

At least I now have that book.