By Comfort Queh

What if you paid $149.50 for “Psychology in Your Life,” 2nd edition, at the DCCC bookstore when you could have paid $114.58 on Amazon? Or maybe you paid $138.00 for “Natural Hazards” when you could have paid $115.03 on Amazon?

It would be really dissapointing if you paid $204.00 for “Interpersonal Communication” by Julia T. Wood at DCCC’s bookstore when you could have paid $115.17 on Amazon.

Good news! Students who purchase their textbooks at DCCC main campus bookstore have the opportunity to save money by using Price Match.

Price Match allows students to match their textbooks for lower prices they find, and purchase it for that price at the bookstore.

Efollet, the owner of DCCC’s bookstore, started Price Match on July 16, 2016 to accommodate students when purchasing their textbooks at the bookstore.

“Price Matching has come along because the market is getting more and more competitive,” said Jamar Abdullah, the DCCC bookstore manager. “Price Matching is something that we do to try to offer students some alternative to some of the pricing issues that they have.”

With Price Match, students can match cheaper prices they find at Barnes & Noble, local competitors, and direct sales from Amazon when purchasing their textbooks at the bookstore. After the price is adjusted, students receive the difference on a bookstore gift card.

Abdullah said the company considers local competitors to be “a vendor that pulls his truck up and sells books, or buys books, a local bookstore, anything that’s really local, just not national.”

When Price Matching, students are able to match the prices of textbooks of the same format.

This includes new, rental, and used books that the bookstore has in stock. Students can then use their financial aid or any other form of payment to purchase their textbooks.

Chegg, Socialbib, Half, Textbookrush, and other aggregator sites are not part of the Price Match Program.

Price matching is almost like “apples to apples,” Abdullah said. “We can’t price match something from a person because a person can set whatever price they want. Most big box retailers have a pricing instruction and they adhere to certain rules and guidelines like we do, so it’s comparable.”

A quantity of 33 books has been price matched from Dec. 1 to Jan. 25, resulting in a total discount of $866.07 from the bookstore. Since the beginning of the program, the bookstore has price matched a total of 231 books, with a overall discount of $2,400, according to Abdullah.

The company advertises Price Match through both Efollett and the DCCC bookstore website.

“In-store, signage, and websites are the primary ways we advertise for Price Match,” Abdullah said. Students are encouraged to visit the Efollett websites to see all the ongoing promotions, including Price Match.

Although the program is also advertised on the bookstore’s website, most students are unaware of it. Only five out of 19 students knew about Price Match when polled.

Chris Poulis, a business student at DCCCs, was among the five. “I like the idea because students don’t waste their money,” he said. Poulis said he found out about the program through “word of mouth.”

Although George Rodriguez, a second year student from Coatesville, said he did not know about the program, he added, “Price matching will be a helpful and a nice way to save money.”

The bookstore always has new promotions and products that students can take advantage of on the website, Abdullah said.

“I think Price Match is a great program,” Abdullah added. “Students should take more advantage of it. We will love it if they do.”

Contact Comfort Queh at communitarian@mail.dccc.edu.