David vs. David vs. Goliath

Agora Bookstore and Benjamin Books compete for students’ attention
by Frank Appleyard  -  Fulcrum Staff

IN THE TEXTBOOK business at the University of Ottawa, two Davids annually do battle with the Goliath that is the University of Ottawa Bookstore in the Unicentre. The two stores, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO)-owned Agora on Besserer St., and privately operated Benjamin Books on Osgoode St., are often compared due to their relatively small stature. However, they are frequently at odds.

The Agora was founded in 1999 and receives funding through a student levy, in which full-time undergraduate students pay $9.16 per semester toward the costs of running the Agora.

The raison d’être of the Agora is quite simple, explained SFUO VP Finance Dean Haldenby.

“The whole mandate of the Agora is to lower textbook prices by creating more competition. It’s done quite well,” he said, estimating that students likely save 10–20 per cent at the Agora over the University Bookstore. “The Agora’s real competition is with the University Bookstore, and we have no qualms in letting people know that.”
According to Haldenby, despite receiving the student-levy windfall since its inception, the Agora was consistently in the red until two years ago.

“It’s been profitable over the past couple of years, and that’s because students are starting to realize that it’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s not as if we project these profits in our budget. It just happens because our volume is so much higher than we expected.”

However, Benjamin Books owner Mordy Bubis is less than impressed with the creation and continued existence of the Agora.

“The Agora is a recently arrived competitor that was artificially created through large subsidization by the student union picking the pocket of students for the last eight years,” he said.

While admitting that the entrance of the Agora into the textbook market has made it more difficult for his store to compete, he believed that after being in business for 25 years, Benjamin Books is far from an underdog.

“Very few faculties that have been with us in the past have left us for the Agora. We’ve also gained a few customers,” he said. “Ours is a real bookstore. Ours is a bookstore that has some depth to it and has collections of scholarly works.”

Haldenby defended the Agora, saying that the store serves a different clientele than those who frequent Benjamin Books.

“I don’t believe that we’re undercutting Benjamin Books at all,” he said. “They have their special niche and their relationships with certain professors. You can’t get all the normal textbooks at Benjamin Books; it’s more of a specialized textbook business.”