Caltech Bookstore

alma matar!

This place is an embarrassment. How can a university of Caltech’s calibre get away without having anything resembling a real bookstore?
Do you like thin made-​in-​China tshirts and kitschy plastic junk stamped with letters spelling out Caltech? If so, you’ll love this store. But if you’d like a shirt or sweatshirt with nice hand, a classy design, and a print that won’t flake off after the first few washes then stay away; you won’t find anything like that here.
Think you might find books in a bookstore? Not here. Unless what you need are book on the life of Richard Feynman. Those are here in abundance.
And school supplies? Forget it. Unless you’re the type of person for which «any pen will do» you’re unlikely to find what you want. And despite all the signs indicating that they can order anything for you, they are limited to stock available in a particular catalog from a particular company. So, no, they can’t just order anything for you. I’ve tried.
Some of these failings (like poor office supply selection, absence of books, and junky souvenirs) are due to how they’ve chosen to run the shop, but others lie with the Institute itself. For instance, Caltech doesn’t have much of a graphic identity beyond the torch seal, and as a result none of the shirts seem ‘authentic.‘
It’s just a sad, sad state of affairs. For books, go to Century Bookstore or Vromann’s. For office supplies, Office Depot isn’t far. And if you need some junky caltech souvenirs, this is the place.

The bookstore for the California Institute of Technology. Actually «bookstore» is a bit of a misnomer — the only books they sell are popular books or books by Caltech authors; the university decided to outsource or e-​source textbooks a few years ago. Strange to think you can’t get a textbook on-​campus, but I’ve heard they were losing a lot of money and had to try something… I guess the world is changing.
Nice little shop, with a decent selection of Caltech apparel and gifts. Limited, but sufficient, range of office supplies. They will custom order anything else you may want.
No lounge area; they are next to the Red Door coffee shop but you can’t take reading material from the bookstore to browse there.
A small computer store (Caltech Wired) shares the same location with the bookstore. It has a decent selection of software, computers and accessories and will order other things you want. Open to the public but I expect most of their business comes from Techers.
Friendly and helpful staff.
Not open weekends or evenings.
Accepts credit cards.
Caltech alumni enjoy a 15% discount.
Discounted tickets for Seaworld, Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, Disneyland & other places as well as discounted movie tickets are available to the Caltech community — this is a nice perk.