What Makes Us Spend Our Money At the Bookstore

My survey of 100 K College students was intended to find out how much they spend on average at the bookstore. I knew going in that textbooks would far and away be the item(s) that they spent the most money on, so I excluded that category from my survey. I wanted to find out what people thought of Kalamazoo College's bookstore, and what might make them decide to spend their money there. I divided my sample up by grade, including 25 from each class. The results were a little surprising. Across the sample, the biggest determinants of spending were the selection of the items, and the value that people thought they were getting for those items. My interpretation was that if students had a greater variety of items available to them, they would feel like they were getting better value for their money. The average amount spent on their last visit, was under $20, and most of the items purchased were for items such as folders, pencils, or misc. supplies. Not clothing, or other knick knacks that you would typically find at a college bookstore. The impression I got was that the bookstore doesnt carry enough different things that would entice K students to spend money there. Greater variety might lead to greater amounts of spending.