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Student Stores Renovation Invites Visitors to Linger

Student Stores cafe

The main floor on the Pit level has an expanded cafe with seating for 100 and a menu of sandwiches, soups and pastries. (Photo by Grant Halverson ’93)

For a while, UNC Student Stores has been as much of a central campus pass-through for students and others headed north or south as it has a shopping destination. Now, General Manager Michele Gretch-Carter says, the building has been renovated to entice visitors to stay a while.

Barnes & Noble College took over management of the facility last year, and among the renovations unveiled in August are moving the Bull’s Head Bookshop from the middle floor to the top floor and expanding its stock to as many as 70,000 titles, twice as many as before. An enclosed reading room looks out over the Pit.

It also includes an LED fireplace with a large-screen TV mounted above; envision football weekends, with patrons lacking tickets to the game listening to the roar from Kenan Stadium across South Road while taking a break in a comfy chair and catching the action on the big screen.

Also on the top floor is a post office, print shop, computer store, tech shop and a pharmacy operated by Campus Health Services.

The main floor on the Pit level has an expanded cafe with seating for 100 and a menu of sandwiches, soups and pastries. Shoppers also will find clothing and other UNC-branded merchandise.

The bottom floor houses textbooks, school supplies and a convenience store.

Net proceeds from Student Stores sales will continue to support need-based scholarships; Barnes & Noble College has guaranteed a minimum payment of $3 million annually for the first two years.

Hours: Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-6 p.m.

Student Stores, 207 South Road, Chapel Hill, 919-962-5066

 — Don Evans ‘80

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