The New and “Improved” U-Store(s)

Before there was one U-Store. Now there are two. I’m almost certain that at some point, the administration must have spoon fed us the idea that two U-Stores where better than one. Well, either they were wrong, or they lied. The splitting up of the U-Store has so far had no noticeable bonuses, but it has been able to give me a splitting headache.

Let’s start with postcards. For the moment I’ll drop the fact that the best Princeton postcards were always available at Micawber. I had, until recently, never needed or wanted to buy a Princeton postcard. However, things change, and I needed not one, but three. So, of course, I went to the U-Store on University Place. I couldn’t find any, so I asked a sales associate. He told me they were all out, and that the postcards could be found on Nassau Street. Ok, it’s not like I don’t go to Nassau Street every day—I stopped by the second U-Store, and here indeed they did have postcards, very nice tiny ones that I might very easily stick on my wall to go with my collection of Princetonania. Not ones I would want to throw in the mail. So I asked another salesperson, “Don’t you have any photo postcards?”

“Oh yes, those are at our location on University Place.”

You see where this is going, right? So I went back to University Place and asked again, and yes, here were the kind of postcard one actually sends through the post. Unfortunately, what they had left was a less-than-thrilling selection. So naturally, I asked about when they would get their stock renewed. The very helpful lady told me to check out the Nassau Street selection.
It’s like a revolving door of doom.

But before I could ask this last helpful lady, I had to wait on line. They had no fewer than 3 registers open, and the line was still obscenely long. I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait on a line that long at the U-Store before. Even when buying course books before, I would just go on to another floor where there were more registers and almost certainly a shorter line. Now, there aren’t any other floors, and imagine trying to explain to Public Safety that you were just taking these things to the other U-Store because you figured the line might be shorter.

What else? The floor space is a mess, and everything feels cramped. Another complaint would be that I can’t buy my hoodie and my juice at the same store anymore. Oh, and I could go on and on about how having the books taken out of the U-Store has created that monster Labyrinth (it’s a Jekyll and Hyde sort of monster, as it does have some good points), but that is an old song and a story for another post.