DePaul Campus Bookstore

I pray that I never have to step foot in this place again.
Want bad customer service? Want workers who have no idea what they’re doing? Like when people don’t listen to you? Go here.
If you ask any questions for help or assistance– forget it.

The clothes are pretty ugly, but the staff are friendly and get you through the course book line pretty quickly. Pretty standard for a campus bookstore. Not sure what you can really expect other than what it is.

I agree with everyone who wrote that this store is overpriced. Don’t go there, order used and new textbooks on amazon — it will be 3 – 4 times cheaper.

I think this place exists to serve DePaul (and to serve coffee), nothing else. I’m neither pro nor anti Barnes and Noble — it serves a function, which is to sell me books and magazines.
This place is not a credit to the B&N reputation. I’ll forgive that it’s small and understocked. I’ll even forgive the surly behavior from the staff — it could’ve been a bad day. I won’t forgive their ignorance. That is a result of poor hiring and training: could B&N not find employees that know something about books and magazines? Or, if not, could they not at least train them?
Example dialogue from my visit, after unsuccessfully looking for The Atlantic and several other current affairs magazines:
Me: «Do you have The Atlantic? The Atlantic Monthly?»
Clerk: «What’s that?»
Me: «It’s a magazine.»
Clerk: «What kind of magazine is it?»
…continuation snipped to protect your sanity…
I realized:
1: They must not sell such magazines, if this person has never heard of them.
2: They have low employment standards if their staff are not familiar with this or any of a number of other well known magazines that I asked about, regardless of whether they actually sell these magazines.
3: DePaul must have low standards in their partnership with a bookstore chain.
4: Most customers here must not be terribly well informed about the world, if there are no good current affairs magazines being sold here. This is inferred by the implicit demand/​consumption activities of this bookstore.
So, if you just want some pretty light reading (think: grocery and drugstore level reading material) or a coffeee, this may be your place. If you’re expecting it to be a typical Barnes and Noble, you’re out of luck.

This is place is such a rip off! Everything here is marked up ridiculously and the quality isn’t the greatest. The layout is somewhat confusing if you are looking for a textbook for a particular class. The staff on hand is normally super helpful and friendly. Don’t try buying textbook here or selling them back afterwards. I have had much better luck on Amazon, Chegg, and TextbookRenter. The apparel is cool because not many other stores carry such a collection but it is also really expensive and even when stuff is on sale it’s still super expensive. Why do I come in here at all? To see what edition of the book I actually need. The online system doesn’t give you a picture of the books or ISBN number most of the time so it is impossible to figure out what you’re going to need without making a trip.

The students and staff working here are good at their jobs. That’s the only good thing I have to say about this store. All the stereotypes about overcharging and underpaying are true, so avoid buying or selling anything here if you can. Since you already know this story, let me elucidate with a true anecdote. I attempted to sell back my no-​frills copy of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. «No-​frills» = no commentary, footnotes, or essays. I was politely told the store would not accept the book because a new edition had been issued. At that time, Aristotle had been dead for 2,330 years.

Of course it’s overpriced — it’s a campus bookstore. What campus bookstore in America is cheap?
I came just because I felt nostalgic and decided to give DePaul (and Barnes and Noble) more of my money by buying a sweatshirt, ball cap, and car decal. Again, I’m nostalgic and missing Chicago so wanted to bring a little back with me to California.
Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t set foot in this place. I remember buying overpriced books and selling them back for ¹⁄₁₀^th of what I paid. GRRR!!!
The long ling moved fast and my cashier was friendly. I don’t plan on being back anytime soon though!

This place is UNQUESTIONABLY A RIPOFF. You can get your books for much less on on-​line. I can’t believe how much they want to charge for shitty used books!

While it was dissapointing that they closed the Student Center Spirit Shop and it is now the Brownstone’s Annex, Bookstore in Seton Hall has a spirit shop in it and it isn’t that bad for prices if you buy used.

Yeah, their DePaul merch is cute. I will give them that. But Christ, their books are unreasonably expensive. The only reason to buy books here is if you’ve just so happened to forget to buy them at the appropriate time (aka beginning of quarter) and you need them for your class the next day… Not that I would know.
Use Amazon. Or go to Books in the City.

This is a really nice bookstore… It is newly owned by Barnes & Nobles so there are a lot of other things to purchase rather than just school books. Prices are just like every other school bookstore so they are somewhat reasonable. The other products to buy are things like posters, coffee mugs, stationary, and school shirts.

This campus bookstore is where students can pick up the textbooks they need. They also sell some reg. stock books (literature) that you would find at any other bookstore. They of course also have plenty of gift items such as t-​shirts, hats etc. that display the DePaul moniker.