U-store settles in on Nassau Street

The new U-Store location on Nassau Street offers the same Princeton apparel and paraphernalia that the old University Place branch once did.

And for some who have already shopped there, it also seems to offer a brighter, more welcoming experience to customers.

"They've really done an ace job," U-Store student trustee Michael Smith '10 said.

The new branch is much brighter than the fluorescent-lit old store on campus, and the new storefront includes such specialized department titles as "Princeton Alumni Section" selling Princeton blazers and Princeton leather attache cases. It also features an "Einstein Shop," a wall with books, T-shirts and other products featuring the face and works of Albert Einstein, the late Institute for Advanced Study physicist.

"It's a nice atmosphere," Lawrence Darby '08 said of the new storefront. "It's very sleek and modern."

"I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, I think that ... they were very smart about the way they designed it," Paul Boswell '10, a student U-store trustee, said. "There were also even attempts [to be concerned about] sustainability."

Princeton community members have found the Nassau Street location more convenient. "The location is very good for those living in town," Kim Henderson, a local resident, said.

But some students are not so impressed with the Nassau Street store, precisely because of its new location. While he admits the new store is nice, Tom Blair '10 said the store is "too far — I think it should be on campus."

Others say they have not yet been to the new U-Store location because there is little to draw them there. Convenience store products and school supplies, which are the most frequent student purchases, are still available at the University Place store.

"The souvenir-type stuff is not enough to draw me to Nassau Street," Megan Schoendorf '10 said. If these kinds of items were sold alongside school supplies, she added, "maybe I'd look."

A redesigned campus store

With much of its floor space freed up, the campus U-Store is being redesigned to be a new useful space for students' needs.

The store's first floor will be renovated to serve as an "expanded grocery and prepared food section," explained Toni Klein, the store's director of human resources. It will not, as previously suggested, house a coffee shop, but a "coffee station."

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Other products on the first floor will include "dorm and school supplies, an expanded technology section, sporting goods, backpacks, Nike, health and beauty, Clinique, magazines and cards," Klein said. The U-Store is "very excited about the plans for the first floor," which will retain the Princeton Pharmacy, to be open 24/7 while school is in session, she added in an email. Pequod will also remain in the U-Store on the lower mezzanine level.

During the renovation of the first floor, the U-2 convenience store will be relocated temporarily to the building's third floor. The trustees hope to have the new U-2 open in time for reading period, Smith said.

The trustees hoped that full renovations would be complete in time for next semester, Boswell and Smith said, though the final decision on the renovation timeline was unavailable.

Employees of the U-Store have "been very positive with all the changes we have gone through as of late," Klein said, adding that the Princeton community has also been supportive of the U-Store's changes.