Rhoda Faust’s shelves are packed with books on religion, history, philosophy and collections of poetry. As the owner of Maple Street Book Shop, this isn’t unusual.

What is unusual is that Loyola and Tulane professors ordered those books for students to purchase for class, and four weeks into the fall semester, the volumes are stacked and waiting to be shipped back to their respective publishers.

Martin Pousson, an associate English professor, was one of the professors who ordered texts for his classes through Maple Street Books. He ordered 25 sets of books for his classes. At least 17 of them will be returned.

“Rhoda was initially delighted and so was I when almost all of my students showed up to class in the first week with books in hand,” Pousson said. “But … after talking with my students, I discovered that those books hadn’t been bought at Maple Street … they were bought online.”

Maple Street Book Shop is a quaint white building nestled among the sprawl of college bars on Maple Street, frequented by Loyola and Tulane students. The interior of the shop is cozy and inviting. Hand-made signs direct shoppers to different genres, and “The People Room” in the back of the store is a sunlit respite with comfortable seating for the weary reader. Faust’s mother and aunt opened the shop in 1964.

“They wanted to make it a community meeting place,” Faust said. “They loved finding people who thought like them.”

So why is a local business that is so accessible to students being passed over in favor of online shopping? Undoubtedly for the same reasons that college students wreck their small intestines with Ramen noodles and pizza instead of preparing healthy meals with organic groceries: money and convenience.

No one can fault strapped-for-cash students for seeking out less costly ways to acquire books.

Books are expensive. A small collection of poetry by Rita Dove costs upwards of $12 at a bookstore. Maple Street Book Shop may be within easy walking distance from Loyola, but for most students nothing can beat lounging in one’s pajamas while buying books online at extremely low prices.

“You save a lot of money online,” psychology junior Sara Richardson said. “One of my professors even gives us the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) so that we can go to Amazon.com and find the books quickly.”

Sites like Amazon.com and Half.com offer the same Rita Dove collection for $3. With standard shipping the total comes to about $6.50, still vastly cheaper than any bookstore, and the buyer doesn’t have leave his or her home.

Students appreciate this convenience, but Pousson considers the larger impact of online book buying.

“Imagine a world with no local independent bookstores,” Pousson said. “I’ve lived there; it’s called New York City.”

Pousson maintains that while online buying and large warehouse booksellers are certainly convenient, supporting locally owned and operated businesses is vital to the literary culture of New Orleans.

“Literature and writing majors preferred pressing buttons on a keyboard to running their hands on a bookshelf,” Pousson said. “But they failed to see that their discounts come with hidden costs. What happens when their own work seeks a place in the world?”

Faust is now planning to ship between 250 and 350 of the remaining books back to several different publishers.

“It’s a very labor intensive and painstaking process to do returns, and it costs us quite a bit in freight,” she said.

Though online book buying does pose a problem for Maple Street Book Shop Faust said, she and other small booksellers understands students’ need to save money on school books.

“We are very grateful that the professors want their students to discover Maple Street Book Shop,” Faust said. “We love introducing our favorite books to young students … the dilemma, obviously, is that we can’t afford to lose money, which in some cases this year, we are going to.”

In this post-Katrina economy, supporting local businesses is necessary to re-strengthen the city. Of course, money doesn’t grow on the trees in the Peace Quad, and books aren’t getting any cheaper. But to keep New Orleans from becoming a corporate strip mall without variety or quality of businesses, students and citizens must be conscious of where their dollars land, Faust said.

Though Maple Street Book Shop continues to thrive after Katrina, other small businesses can’t withstand the corporate onslaught.

“It comes home when some little store goes out of business,” Faust said.

Pousson remains adamant about the importance of the local bookseller.

“Who can measure the cost when that local bookstore closes its doors?” Pousson said. “How sad, then, should New Orleans surrender to the national pattern. How sad if the local bookstore becomes just another ghost in the city.”

The shop reopened during the October following Katrina and provided free coffee for visitors until the Maple Street coffee shops were able to do business. Faust offers discounts to all faculty ordering books for classes, a 10% discount to students on Tuesdays, and discounts as high as 20% to local charter schools.

Maggie Calmes can be reached at [email protected].