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The Dartmouth
July 17, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Wheelock retains lock on campus textbook market

The start of Winter term caused a book-buying frenzy this week, as many students were forced to wait in lines that stretched as far as the parking lot outside Wheelock Books on Wednesday before purchasing textbooks.

Meanwhile, employees at the spacious Dartmouth Bookstore several doors down waited and hoped for a crowd of students that never arrived. Store manager John Cusick estimated only a couple hundred students patronized at his store throughout the first part of the week.

According to Cusick, the main reason for minimal sales is the limited or nonexistent selection of books for certain departments, which he attributed to the refusal of many professors and departments to share course booklists, or "adoptions," with both bookstores in town.

"We are going to buy 100 percent of the books necessary for 100 percent of the course lists we get," said Cusick. "We hope that professors and students will realize that it is good for the student to have a competitive textbook market here in Hanover."

While the Dartmouth Bookstore boasts a large selection of government, history, economics, biology and chemistry books, it has few computer science, English, psychology and language textbooks.

French and Italian department chair John Rassias gave little thought to his dismissal of the Dartmouth Bookstore.

"I have been working with Wheelock for many years, and I am very very satisfied with their service," he said. "I don't see any reason I should suddenly switch our business to the new store in town."

According to many students, Rassias' faith in Wheelock Books was justified this term. Although lines at Wheelock Books were intimidating at their longest, customers were moved into the store quickly. At other times this week, students were able to check out without a line.

"The building is packed, but I don't think it's as bad as last year," said Greg Erickson '02. "But I think that all depends a lot on what time you come."

To manage the massive seasonal crowds, seven Wheelock Books employees worked at cash registers and several more stocked the shelves. Fire Safety Officer Kevin LaHaye patrolled on site to maintain orderly lines and to enforce the building's small capacity limit of 38.

Russian department chair Lev Loseff attributed his exclusive relationship with Wheelock Books to class size.

"There are very few people enrolled in my classes, so it doesn't make sense to spread the books over two stores," Loseff said.

The old Dartmouth Bookstore, sold to new ownership last spring, also lost money on textbook sales for several years because they were not receiving book lists from many departments. They eventually stopped selling textbooks altogether.

Barnes and Noble College Booksellers, which operates the Dartmouth Bookstore, will likely face a similar dilemma if they are unable to receive more information from the College's departments, as students find buying all their textbooks at Wheelock Books easier.

"I shopped at the original Dartmouth Bookstore when I was a freshman, but since then, their selection has gone way down," Christine Kopprasch '05 said. "Now I just go to Wheelock because it's generally cheaper and it's a guaranteed one-stop thing."