UBC Bookstore

I actually made this part of my review for UBC all over, however, didn’t know that the book store was a separate entity from, therefore, as follows here is my review. Their branded merchandise is expense, especially the agenda book. I came here to see if the text books for courses that I was taking at Langara would be cheaper here, however, the prices were the same. Stationary was over priced. Not a lot of common books as they do cater to text books and or course required material. Customer service was okay. This place is large, very well organized and I had exceptional customer service.

My biggest gripe with the UBC bookstore is their buyback process. They pay on average 5−10% of what you paid for it, and then re-​sell it again at significant mark up. What a ponzi scheme. When i went to return a bunch of textbooks after graduating, they would only offer me a penance for most of them. I walked away and sold them online for significantly more.

My sister and I both graduated from UBC and have to say the bookstore has changed completely. We came here to pick up books for my youngest sister. I liked the old way how they organized the textbooks. Its now organized by author last name. Yes to me that’s confusing. In the past it was organized by department and subject.
They have more options in clothings as well. We were able to find a sweatshirt for my sister. :-)
I can imagine myself coming every 4 months with my sister. However, there are not a lot of parking spots. If you are there to pick up books and is going to drive. Either come later or earlier. As well the parking attendant does check. So don’t take the chance.

The store is neat but the Starbucks inside is one of the poorest ones ive been to. Awful customer service. Not friendly and super slow. The barrista prefer gossiping with colleagues over processing orders. This is not a one off btw. I visit there almost everyday and its the same story.

There’s a Starbucks here so that’s the best part about coming to UBC bookstore. You can certainly grab your go-​to drinks and check off your caffeine coffee cravings for the day. The line can get long but it goes by fast just like any other Starbucks. However, the wait for the drinks is a little longer than most Starbucks. I guess that’s because this Starbucks only have 2 – 3 baristas working. Besides coming here for drinks, I do usually browse around for books and UBC gears. It’s only for fun. I don’t normally get anything in here anyways because the price is quite high compare to other stores. I would not recommend buying books here at all! It’s cheaper at the village, craiglist, Amazon and other online sites! But if you do need books asap, UBC has most all the books you need so you can get it at your convenient! I also love the new renovations — it’s clean and sharp !

The store is still undergoing renos.
A bit of a mess but I love books so I had to hop a bus and go out to one of my favourites.
Good selection of UBC bags, t shirts, sweatpants, key chains, etc, etc. They have some really unique gift ideas too, by the way.

OK, they’re digging the place up and can’t find a parking spot. But at least it’s not snowing. From past visits, I remember you could get sandwiches + salads from around $ 3. The food area also stock everyday items such as fresh salads, sandwiches, toiletries, groceries, soft drinks, redbull… for exams.
There’s Cori’s Kitchen and sandwiches by Duke’s On Broadway. As I remember, the sandwiches are fairly good and priced between $ 5.50 — 6.50. Very good when on the run.
Didn’t get my UBC hoodie this year; or fav books like formal treatise on Monty Python in bi-​lingual-​French-​Canadian/​Anglais.

Really cool book store, it’s under major construction now but should be completed in the near future. The staff is very friendly and a ton of UBC gears.

The University of British Columbia has long been notorious for its aggressive blue-​collar protectionism and UBC Bookstore is but one more example.
In a desperate bid to protect its legion of union employees in the wake of Amazon and open source competition, the book store colludes with the university to be the sole supplier of all the one-​off software and textbooks created specifically for all the required junk arts and science courses unnecessary for anything but graduation. Students need these mostly first-​year survey courses to get a degree but the course materials like the junk courses have little or no re-​sale value. Don’t blame the faculties, either. Strangely, interestingly, few, if any, profs are consulted about grad requirements. It’s not clear who exactly decides which courses are required to obtain a degree. All we know is that junk courses are taught typically by non-​tenured lecturers who add or delete a chapter each year to their material to compel annual sales. Quite often the junk software required for the junk course is only available if you also buy the book.
So much for the university’s commitment to sustainability.
No wonder students are acquiring such massive debt! And for what?
Even worse, the book store now has a policy of no return on items even with receipts and the original bag beyond — wait for it — two weeks! So be very careful browsing the stacks. I bought a $ 20 ‘studypod’ for our resident scholar, who declined the gift — doesn’t work for him. But although it was only opened once, no problem with it, the book store won’t take it back.
Am considering a complaint to the local Better Business Bureau that a two-​week no return policy is a deceptive trade practice according to various consumer protection laws and regulations. No reasonable consumer would ever in a million years expect such a short limitation period on returns. It’s not the usual community practice and it’s highly unlikely that consumers are properly notified. Biblitz was not.
I would urge others to complain about this ridiculous two-​week no return policy as I would urge students to lobby your faculty to remove all but core subjects from graduation requirements. University is not high school, for goodness sake. No one has the time or money to waste on junk arts and science courses and all the corresponding bumf no one else will ever want or need. Don’t let the university or the book store use you like this!

overpriced

A busy central hub on the UBC campus.
Pros:
–Good customer service. The place is a maze, but they generally know where to find things.
–Logistics. This place is a disaster in the first week of the semester, but they’ve done it before and they know how to handle it. You won’t actually wait that long in line at all.
–Electronics department. Usually pretty quiet, and sells a large amount of things you may need to pick up (earbuds, cases, computer, etc.) They also have Bell there which is convenient for me.
–They have some pretty great deals on books and novels no longer needed for courses. Seriously, you can get some recent hard cover books for like $ 7 or $ 8.
Cons:
–Like most university book stores or textbook stores, dramatically overpriced for your materials. You have a better bet to go to the Discount Textbook store, Amazon, or search online
–Buybacks are an absolute joke. They’ll offer for possibly $ 13 for a textbook you paid $ 180 for, if they even accept it. Not entirely their fault if the instructors change course materials, but buybacks are not worth it whatsoever.
–The place is a maze. The layout doesn’t particularly make sense. However, it appears that they may soon be starting renovations/​expansions.

It’s a university bookstore with lots of stuff with the UBC logo on it, what else can I say about this place.
The store is laid out very oddly, almost maze like. If you want to grab something quick, and head to the check in line because you’re running late for class, you can’t. You have to walk all the way around the store and through the clothing section before you can make your purchase.
But what can you do, this is THE bookstore on campus.

As crazy as it gets when it comes time to buy course materials at the beginning of term, they are really good at keeping everything organized and orderly (especially compared to other uni bookstores I’ve had to deal with). Even when I had to stand in what looked like a line of 150 people, I only had to wait about 20 minutes because they had tons of people working at check-​out.
They also have non-​school books, lots of awesome stationary, spirit wear, a tech department and food/​housewares type stuff (mugs, calendars, etc). I think you get a small discount with your UBCcard on purchases as well.
The reason I’ve rated the bookstore down is because pretty much all non-​course materials are highly over-​priced, which is a little disappointing and seems like they might be trying to take advantage of the fact that they’re in the heart of campus. Also, there is only one door, which sounds like a silly thing to complain about, but I find very inconvenient and annoying.

I really enjoy wandering around UBC’s bookstore whenever I get the chance. The store looks fantastic, especially now that all of the renovations are over. I’ve been going here for over a month, but I wanted to wait until school started to write an accurate review.
Compared to other university bookstores, UBC is definitely at the top of the list for organization and cleanliness (even though it is smaller). The books and stationary are really well organized, and it’s pretty easy to find whatever you’re looking for. If you need computer stuff, the microstore here is fantastic. They offer plenty of software, hardware, and even video games. As for UBC clothing, they have a great selection of hoodies, sweatpants, and other UBC gear. If you are having problems finding something, the staff both in the store and at the information booth are very helpful. Some things are a bit pricey, but do you expect anything less for a university bookstore?
If you only want to buy stationary, don’t go to the front of the store to pay. There is a little desk in the center of the store near the pens that rarely has a line and specializes in faculty accounts and stationary sales. Save yourself some time, especially during the beginning of the semester.
Another tip: Don’t be nervous about long lines for the U-​Pass. The system UBC set up is extremely quick. They have over 20 machines, and all you do is swipe your UBC student card to get your pass. It takes maybe 30 seconds, so even if there is a line you won’t be there for long.

It certainly has grown since I was here last, about 28 years ago.
Not just a bookstore, but a place to paint your educational canvas with school neccessities.
Get a cup of coffee, touristy finds like UBC stuff and trinkits abound.

Compared to any other university’s bookstore that I’ve seen, UBC’s bookstore is definitely one of the best. Now albeit, it’s sometimes overprices (but which University Bookstore isn’t?), but they have a great selection of gifts, backpacks, books (not only text books), Apple products, sales, clothing, and more! They’re great at donating UBC goods for door prizes for events held by on campus student groups. And they sell coffee when you’re needing a quick fix, and it’s the only thing close by and you don’t have time to run to the SUB.

I wouldn’t get too excited about UBC bookstore unless you actually have the money to buy the books or the supplies. For the record, UBC bookstore used to be the largest bookstore in B.C. This was when Coles was still the king of mall bookstores. Now UBC Bookstore is only for people who can afford to buy new books. Most UBC students who need books for their classes buy all used books. There is a clothing area for UBC merchandise and an area where you can buy computer equipment (mostly Mac). They sell backpacks and bags for school too. As typical of larger bookstores, you can buy coffee, muffins, and cinnabuns too.

I second all the stuff that Geoff B. said in the FTR, but I add a fourth star for three reasons: quality, customer service and a dash of sustainability.
I just bought a whack of Moleskines which are awesome, and they had a pretty good selection of the high quality notebooks. Most of the products in-​store are of a decent standard, and they offer many that are of above average quality.
The customer service has always been great here for me, even when its start-​of-​semester insanity time, and since most of the staff are university students, they’re usually not bad to look at either. I’m not sayin’… I’m just sayin’… yeah. Anyway.
Finally, probably due to the demands of worldly students, UBC bookstore offers a pretty fine selection of environmentally-​friendly and sustainable products, and seems to take the initiative to heart: if you bring your own bag, or don’t need one for your purchase, they donate to charity. Right on.

Having attended a few universities in my tumultuous university career I know a thing or two about their bookstores. UBC’s is particularly large, befitting the size of the school, and has serious problems with lineups to pay for overpriced texts at the beginning of every semester. There are one or two ways around this, of course: the venerable Amazon method, which now that I’m in upper level classes doesn’t always work for me; a program the bookstore puts on called Fast Start, where they pick out textbooks based on a student’s courses, put them in a box, and he or she can pick them up from a kiosk without setting foot inside the packed bookstore; or you can do what I did this semester. Show up in the morning on the first day of class. Rather than waiting 20 or 30 (or sometimes 40) minutes in line, my wait was about 5 minutes.
Besides the line problems, UBC bookstore is a bit better than your average university’s. They’ve got all kinds of extra stuff, from computers to clothes. That’s great if you don’t need to shop around for your computing needs or have some school spirit, but my objective is usually to get in and out as quick as possible.
Also, don’t believe the map here. Google doesn’t realize University Blvd has a 6200 block. It’s really on the corner of University and East Mall, down the steps at the south-​west side of the intersection.