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GREENSBORO — UNCG senior Ashley Bennett shopped in the bookstore Thursday for textbooks for her spring semester classes. Most of the time, she said, she buys used books online at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

“They’re usually a lot cheaper,” Bennett said.

Some new companies and established booksellers are offering yet another option they think is an even better value than used books: rented ones.

“It’s an avenue for students to save money,” said Aayush Phumbhra, co-founder of the online textbook rental site Chegg.com. “And all the companies that are in the market are going to be able to help those students who are looking for substantial savings.”

Barnes & Noble announced last week that it was launching a textbook rental program. The company operates bookstores at UNCG, High Point University and Elon University. The program is not yet available at those schools.

Barnes & Noble offered the program at three schools last year but is expanding it this year, said Karen DiScala, manager of corporate communications for

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers.

The program allows students to rent books for a fixed cost — 42.5 percent of the price of a new book. A $100 textbook would cost a student $42.50.

Phumbhra said his company launched a little more than two years ago and has grown from renting books at a few hundred colleges to working with students at 6,400 campuses.

Chegg rents to students at UNCG, Greensboro College and N.C. A&T, he said.

Rental costs vary from book to book, Phumbhra said. An earth science book being used at UNCG has a list price of $126, but Chegg is renting it for $39, Phumbhra said. He said a human communications book being used at N.C. A&T has a list price of $100 but is renting for $40.

The Illinois-based Follett Higher Education Group said it, too, has rolled out a book rental program that could be available to Piedmont Triad students by the fall. The program, RentAText, rents textbooks at a minimum of 55 percent off the new book price, said Elio DiStaola, Follett’s director of public and campus relations.

This semester, 27 of its bookstores offer RentAText. Follett has plans to eventually offer the program at all its stores, DiStaola said.

Follett operates bookstores at Alamance Community College, GTCC, Guilford College and Rockingham Community College, as well as Addam’s University Bookstore on Tate Street, which caters to UNCG students.

Several students shopping for textbooks at the UNCG bookstore this week said they were unfamiliar with rental programs and they preferred buying used books at the store or online.

“I’m just getting as many used ones as I can and then getting the new ones if I have to,” said sophomore Kathryn Thompson, who said she also found three textbooks at Addam’s University Bookstore.

Patrick Binks, the manager at Addam’s, said he’s not surprised some students still turn to their local bookstores for their textbook needs.

“I think they’ll always do that — for the next, at least, five to 10 years, anyway,” Binks said. “Just because it’s what people know.”

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com