Quartet copies has cornered the course pack market
Photo: Shiraz Ahmed
Rumor: NU professors send hordes of students to Quartet Copies for their course packs, and in return, the local copy shop gives NU a cut of the profits.
At the start of each quarter, the line at Quartet Copies spills out the door, down Clark St. and around the block up Sherman, as hundreds of students flood the shop to pick up their “course packs”—that is, bound books of class readings—for the quarter. To keep up with the demand, Quartet goes into overdrive. “The first couple days it’s jammed,” says owner Chris Linster. “It’s a zoo.”
But according to Linster and university officials, there is no sweet-heart deal between the two establishments (such as the well-known deals the university has with Sodexo and U.S. Bank).
“Not all the professors send course packs here. Several go through Norris bookstore,” says Linster. “It’s not arranged through the university.”
In fact, Northwestern has had a preferred vendor contract with FedEx for all NU’s printing needs since 2003. The only reason Quartet has still been getting business is because professors aren’t required to abide by the terms of this deal.
“Our purchasing department creates what we feel is the best eye for copy productions job, but if professors for whatever reason go elsewhere, they have that privilege,” says Brian Peters, Director of University Services.
Which means that professors still go to Quartet en masse for their printing needs. “All of our professors are regulars,” Linster says. “There are dozens of them.”
History professor Brodwyn Fischer has in the past chosen Quartet over the the University-promoted FedEx. “There was a lot less bureaucracy and they were cheaper,” said Fischer. “And they’re pretty good at advertising. They send out an email at the beginning of each quarter.”
Recently though, Fischer has found a quicker, cheaper replacement for Quartet: Blackboard.
And she’s not alone. According to Linster, Quartet’s main cash-flow doesn’t come from course packets anymore. By his rough estimates, 20 years ago, when he was just a Quartet employee, 80 percent of business came from the university. Now, Linster says that figure’s closer to 20 percent. “Blackboard has taken a lot of business away.”
Fischer has her reasons for switching entirely to Blackboard. “It’s just easier for students, and sometimes they don’t even go pick up the packets,” she says.
As course packet business has declined, and prices for the copyrights of pieces printed have gone up—Quartet previously profited off of printing documents from Blackboard for students, but quickly realized that buying the license to print them was just not worth it—Linster and partner Thom Miller have moved the business towards printing brochures and programs. Quartet is also an official Harvard University distributor, exclusively printing many documents from Harvard Business School for Kellogg grad students. “Course packets are still something we do, but it’s not the end-all-be-all,” Linster says.
Status: Debunked
This is a rumor? Does anyone even care??