October 12, 2005
Franchisees Get Beat On Access to Products
Beat the Bookstore is a franchise chain of bookstores specializing in the sale of college textbooks. The company is apparently facing challenges among academic institutions resistant to losing their target market. Five months ago, Beat the Bookstore filed a lawsuit against Utah Valley State College (UVSC) for refusing to provide the franchise company's founder, David Monk, its list of required textbooks. Now, its Colorado franchisee is facing a similar problem. As reported by one local news source, Colorado University (CU) has placed a $3,000 to $3,500 price tag on the list of books its students are required to buy this fall. The franchisee claims that the hefty price tag is unreasonable and violates Colorado law prohibiting public institutions from charging more than the actual cost of copying public information (such as the list) under the Colorado Open Records Act. CU officials, on the other hand, argue that the franchisee is not being treated any differently from other vendors, such as a competing bookstore owned by Barnes & Noble that pays more than $3,500 each semester for copies of professors' book requests. Although the franchisee is unsure whether he will take the dispute to court, he may be hoping that the resulting publicity will encourage CU to cooperate, just as UVSC did five months ago. No word yet on whether Beat the Bookstore plans to intervene on its franchisee's behalf.