Packbackers Student Bookstore

As an NCSU student that thinks the campus bookstore is little more than a profiteering racket cleverly designed to charge its captive audience absurd prices for textbooks, I wholeheartedly support this private store’s attempt to provide students an alternative. Unfortunately, I don’t find the prices all that much more competitive. But, a bit of savings is better than no savings at all, and the small, but adequate parking lot out front will, if nothing else, save me from dumping quarters into the small parking lot in front of the campus bookstore.

As a student, I loved this place in the old location because it was cheaper than the campus bookstore when it came time to start filling out those reading lists the professors dumped on me. As an alum, I love this place because it’s slightly cheaper than the campus bookstore when it’s time to purchase some strange object with a wolf plastered on it. Water bottles, golf club covers, Christmas ornaments… whatever. If you can slap an NC State logo on it, chances are that it’s in here.
Added bonus? Getting to talk to whatever student working the store about Wolfpack sports. I always love hearing what the students think about things, remembering that I was once a freshman awesomely pleased to be going to a Division I school and having convinced myself that Kenny Inge and Archie Miller were going to be bona fide basketball stars one day.

Packbacker’s is a handy bookstore for those not content to stay on campus for all their needs (though it’s not very far, in truth). Every time I’ve gone here there’s been a friendly student willing to help me with all my needs and the prices are a bit lower than the university bookstore. It’s a nice relaxed environment (as many root-​beer DumDums as I can cram into my gaping maw? YES PLEASE) and a staple for the collegiate looking to acquire or liquidate condensed knowledge encoded in Romantic runes of black dye on compressed and bleached dead tree pulp.