As of July 14 the Bookstore closed in its old location in the portable behind the library, and opened in its new location on July 19.

Located at the end of the Student and Administration Building, next to the Library and Learning Resource center and cafeteria, the Bookstore is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The new store is larger, with more open space, and the high stepped ceiling, studded with lights evokes a large retail store.

There is even some seating under some trees out front, and a view of the Campus Center Plaza.

Customer Service Clerk Erika Greene said, “It definitely looks better (and) more modern.”

“I worked at the last one (in the portables), and the one before that (in the now demolished Student Activities Building),” Cashier Cecilia Alvarez said, “It was definitely cozier in the last one.”

Cashier Andy Alvarez said the new location is “more on campus” and “more like a college book store” (as opposed to a high school operation.)

Cecilia Alvarez said the new store has a better selection, with more room for snacks, clothes, mugs and specialty items like water bottles with fruit diffusers.

The store even carries milk to go with the various new cereals on display.

It also offers gourmet coffee by way of an arrangement with the six-time first place Best of the Bay winner Catahoula Coffee Company, she said.

Bookstore Operations Assistant Nick Dunn said the Bookstore “will carry one standard (Catahoula) blend, and — rotate a blend every couple weeks.

“It’s nice to be out of the really tiny portable. We can carry all the books and supplies we couldn’t before,” he said.

He said, “(The old store) had weird little spots on the floor where the portables were joined together. I always tripped on the same spot.”

The new store even carries a small locked cabinet of Calculators, USB drives, earbuds and other cheap but useful electronics.

No opening is entirely smooth though. Greene said that moving into a new place is going to be a little hairy.

Lines of students build up some every once in a while, mostly when classes end between noon and 2 p.m., she said.

The office in back had some difficulties with its one-way mirrored window.

Cecilia Alvarez said, “at first there was no (reflective) film, then it was installed backward.” This allowed customers to see in, while those in the office couldn’t see out.

Thursday the mirroring was corrected. The old mirrored film was stripped off, and a new one was squeegeed on, right way around.

For now a workstation at the front remains unoccupied until some finishing work can be done, and besides that Dunn said the store was “still waiting on some books.”

“Just check it out. Come see it,” Dunn said.