Golden Gate University Bookstore

This is the WORST bookstore and false advertisers as well. I decided to rent from the book store due to their website stating a book was in-​stock… Guess what, IT ISN’T!!! I’ve been waiting for over a week for it to arrive from Texas… Even today, the website states it’s in-​stock??? Use Chegg or Barnes and Noble, you’ll be thankful. I will NEVER again use the bookstore!

So, I love my graduate program and am excited about my classes this semester. Wanting to be ahead of the game and begin my reading before classes begin but not wanting to wait for my books on Amazon, I called the bookstore for pricing. I’m simultaneously searching Amazon as I’m placed on hold while the nice lady is searching for prices. I gasped out loud at the price of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that I see online ($ 88, new) and almost fell out of my chair when I heard the price of the book as sold in the bookstore ($ 144, new). The used version was selling for $ 72. Wow. Huge disparity. I will definitely not be purchasing from the store ever again, despite the convenience.

All college bookstores have different and shorter business hours than the admin office. So I get used to confirm before going :) Staffs were helpful when I wanted to just look at the textbooks rather than buying :) I don’t mind they only sell textbooks, actually it’s more concentrate when I only want to know what textbooks other classes use.

There are some unnecessarily cranky reviews here. First of all, the bookstore does NOT close at 5:30 (I teach a class that starts at 6:50PM on Wednesdays and I often swing through the bookstore at the last minute). The other complaint I see here is no books. Hmmm, except for every required text for every course offered in a given semester! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE bookstores and would love to see more books, but the GGU bookstore gets the job done.
Beyond that, there’s a nice selection of logo ware (the black Cutter & Buck polos are especially nice), the staff are REALLY friendly and helpful, and the bookstore sits inside the great new student center with the café just outside its doors.
Check it out even if you aren’t a student at GGU.

You know what I love about bookstores? Books!
You know what I love about university bookstores? Even MORE books!
You know what the problem with the GGU bookstore is? There’s a wall full of legal supplements, a few «how to survive college» books, whatever Oprah’s Book Club put out this month, some previously viewed college related DVDs (‘cuz it’s not college unless you own used copies of PCU and Soul Man), a few shirts, a bumper sticker or two and some candy. That’s it.
So what’s missing? Oh yeah, that would be the BOOKS! You see, they keep the textbooks THIRTY FEET behind the checkout counter so you can’t reach them. I’ve been told by my «top secret sources» that the textbooks are kept FROM the students in order to prevent people from writing down book names/​ISBN numbers and simply ordering those books online.
And why do they do this? Mark ups, baby! Mark ups. The GGU bookstore marks up books AS MUCH AS 40% over retail! That’s right, 40% over what the PUBLISHER says they should be charging.
Yet, with all this built in profit and scamming, they still can’t seem to ever ORDER enough books. In EVERY CLASS I’ve had at the university there’s been SOMEONE who doesn’t have their book on the first day because the bookstore DIDN’T ORDER ENOUGH!
Oh, and let me add that the bookstore isn’t owned by the university. It was outsourced to Follette who decided to take the university’s good faith and drive it into the ground.
So, next semester, I’ve decided that I’m going to make my fortune by buying textbooks for retail, marking the prices up by 15% and selling them in front of the bookstore. Look for me standing between the panhandling homeless guy and the drunk who’s peeing against the wall. I’ll have all your books… and I’ll have ‘em «cheap»!

Right Matthew … what kind of Univeristy that caters to the evening classes has a bookstore staying open until 5:30 … but they are open till 7 on Mondays! I can never get the books I really need, and have resorted to the free way of getting the Code and regulations I need online FOR FREE…

Worst college bookstore ever.