From left: Brithone Tate of Pembroke Hall Primary School, Dionne Henry and her daughter, Peta-Jhay Shelly, examine books at the Sangster's Book Stores' booth at the annual Book Fair at the Girl Guide headquarters yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Stung by a recent Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) survey which found price differences of hundreds of dollars for some school books, local distributors say they are not to blame.

"It's not that the book stores are stealing, or that they are wicked, it is just that many factors influence the prices," a local book seller told The Sunday Gleaner.

The CAC survey, which was published last Tuesday, showed that Jamaicans could save hundreds of dollars by shopping around when making those back-to-school book purchases.

For example, the text, Chemistry in Context (fifth edition), by Graham Hill and John Holman, is being sold for $6,000 at the Hamilton Bookshop in Portland, and for $4,713 at the Linstead Books and Variety Store in St Catherine.

The book, Geometric and Engi-neering Drawing, by K. Morling, is being sold in the stores from a low of $1,500 to a high of $4,090.

But, Maxine Cole, manager of A-Z Bookshop, which sells The Merchant of Venice for $1,121, said the price of books was dependent on the printing house.

"The Merchant of Venice is published by many, many printing houses, so it could be a Longman, Nelson, or a number of others," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

It was a similar story from Sydney Parkinson, manager of the L.C. Bookstore.

Parkinson added that where or how the books were bought by the local companies would also affect the price. "Probably different retailers bought it from different companies," Parkinson said

Franklin McGibbon, president of the BIAJ, echoed that view.

"Some stores will have old stock, thus, they will sell at the old price until they have actually purchased new stock," he said.

McGibbon pointed out that the price of some books had increased by as much as 43 per cent in the past 12 months.

devaluation

He explained the sharp increase by pointing to the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar against most major currencies, and the revision of some texts.

"There are some books that have been revised and are now considered as a new product. The cost of any revised text will increase, as the US foreign exchange went up by 25 per cent," McGibbon said

That view is shared by Racquel Chambers, research officer at the Consumer Affairs Commission, who admitted that factors, such as paper cost and inflation, could account for some of the price variations.

According to Chambers, the annual survey is not to raise questions about the integrity of book retailers, but to equip consumers with information as to where they can get affordable books.