In the heat of the afternoon on University Avenue, the mood inside the Florida Book Store was surprisingly calm. Cashiers worked efficiently, but not too hurriedly, to get the dozen or so students gathered around the registers taken care of.
Upstairs, another cluster of students browsed the bookshelves, which were neat and tidy, with many empty spaces from where early birds had already caught their worms.
The madness of the first-day-of-classes textbook rush was nowhere to be found Monday.
Assistant store manager Taryn Emswiler said the Florida Book Store was busiest earlier in the day, although historically, Tuesday and Thursday are the busiest.
Going by how many cases of Red Bull had disappeared by 2:30 p.m. - the store gave away a can of Red Bull with every purchase Monday - Emswiler estimated about 500 people had bought books so far. She expected a few more waves of students to drop in between late afternoon and 9 p.m., when Florida Book Store closes during drop-add week.
By the afternoon, some UF students were already discouraged by the lack of available textbooks at local stores.
"I've been to three bookstores and none of them carry my classes' books," UF junior Jason Simmons said.
Simmons, a digital arts and sciences major, said the UF Bookstore carries the books, but they're not stocked. Simmons said the other bookstores he visited weren't particularly crowded, either. Although the Florida Book Store was the busiest he'd seen Monday, they remembered much more chaos in semesters past, with lines often running out the door.
Florida Book Store will receive a shipment Wednesday, including all of the lab manuals for biology and organic chemistry classes. Kory Miller, a Florida Book Store employee, said that's when he's expecting a huge rush of students.
