Shop e-Readers has struck a new deal with Vancouver Community College to bring e-readers to the classroom. Starting in a few weeks at the Broadway and Downtown campus will begin to sell Kindle e-Readers in the student bookstores.
The Kindle e-Reader continues to be one of the most dominant e-readers in the market and has great relevance for the overall student body. Not only can you read books purchased from Amazon such as Fiction and Non-Fiction but also course material. There are many textbooks that are part of various programs that be purchased or loaned directly from Amazons new student textbook store. You can save up to 65% on your remedial reading for your various courses, so it pays to go digital.
Not only will Shop e-Readers be providing various Kindle devices to choose from, but you can actually get some hands on time with it. The company has developed really nice display cases that give you all of the specs and key features on the devices. There is also a working unit built right into the display unit so you can check out how textbooks and other books look.
Kelly Hannah of Shop e-Readers told us in an exclusive interview that “We are very excited about our 3rd major school carrying our e-readers in their student bookstore! In the last few weeks we got Simon Frasier University and Blackberry Books on Granville Island carrying our devices. Digital eBook Readers in the classroom just make sense and many students find its easier to carry a device that weighs less then a pound vs. carrying 3 or 4 books and your notes. The Kindle allows you to make your own notes and make annotations that save right to the cloud. Be on the lookout for our display stand in both VCC schools for the next semester.”
We asked the company what their overall strategy was with E-Readers in Canada and in other international markets such as Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Kelly mentioned that “We are a Vancouver based company and e-readers in Canada are often in short supply and we have a very limited selection. Really your only choices in the retail sphere are Kobo, Sony, Pandigital and the older Kindle models. We really get the short end of the stick sometimes when it comes to current technology getting here, if it ever does at all. We made it a point from day 1 to import into Canada all of the latest devices like the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet, Kindle Fire, Pocketbook 912 and other popular devices. We give Canadians the choice now to deal with company with a great culture and who know their stuff, instead of dealing with EBAY or other graymarkets.”
I think Shop e-Readers is doing e-reader sales right, the company specializes in the devices and nothing else. Most retail companies carrying e-readers often only has 3 or 4 models and the sales staff normally does not know much other than whats on the box. The cool thing about this company is they give a free DVD with video tutorials on how to use it and 100 free books to get you reading right away.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
