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At Mary Jane Books, an Albany bookstore specializing in used books for college students, students wait in line to get to the cash register, shifting the weight of the books in their arms.
Abel Lopez, a political science major wearing a black wool ski cap, expects to spend around $400 on textbooks for his semester at the state University at Albany. Mike Kibler, a UAlbany junior with a shaved head and unshaven chin, spent $375 last semester, including $100 for a textbook on psychological research.
"I usually try to get them used," said Kibler.
Dan Birnbaum and Carole Renzi, co-owners of Mary Jane Books are betting other students will think like Kibler as they compete with UAlbany's on-campus bookstore for student dollars.
As area colleges and universities began classes for their spring semesters at the end of January, students stocked up on required texts for subjects from physics to physical therapy. Whether on or off campus, bookstores that cater to students tried to keep up with the sales crunch that inevitably comes at the start of a semester.
Mary Jane Books began shuttling UAlbany students back and forth from its store to campus in a revamped blue school bus. The student rush at m.o.s.s. books and other provisions in Troy--which serves the Sage Colleges-peaked at lunch as students holding schedules milled through aisles scouring the shelves. At the Union College Bookstore in Schenectady around 2,000 students tried to jam into 2,400 square feet of retail space to buy required reading. Door monitors sometimes asked students to wait outside...