Monash University Bookshop

If you’ve ever been to a University Bookshop, you’ll know that they sell a mixture of course list books, stationary, and random overpriced things to aid in your procrastination. This one is the same.
Go at the start of semester, and there’ll be piles and piles of reading guides for each unit, all arranged in a vaguely logical way (meaning you’ll only spend five minutes looking for yours instead of most of the day). Prepare to depart with most of your savings account as books and photocopying ain’t cheap, and then congratulate yourself on study well prepared for.
The Monash Clayton bookshop deserves an extra special mention for their customer service during peak periods at the start of each semester. Yes, we know to expect to queue up for an hour. It’s just what happens, what with thousands of students trying to buy their books in the same week. So what have the staff decided to do? Walk around chatting to the customers, cheering them up, reassuring them the wait won’t be too long, and handing out chupa chups. Genius.

As Jessica mentioned, this place has decent customer service as far as talking to customers in line and reassuring them that they’ll be served sometime today. If I were to compare this bookshop to other uni bookshops (and I’ve spent way too much time in a good dozen of them), this one would probably be four or five stars. But in comparison to a normal bookshop, no, it’s lucky to get three.
Prices are pretty ridiculous. My normal routine is to find the books I need, then have a look at any of the several dozen online retailers that have those same books (in the all important same editions — thats why I check the shop in the first place) at a significant saving, and it’s just a click and a credit card number, rather than a two hour long wait in line. Of course, you’ve got to be prepared in advance, and that isn’t always possible. Sometimes it’s worth ordering the book at a regional uni bookshop and just having a picnic in the country for the day. Otherwise, this is my last resort.