The Kenyon Bookstore offers much more than books to the College community -- although it offers books in abundance. In addition to its textbook department, the store provides a large selection of fiction and nonfiction trade books, ranging from bestsellers to remainders, on subjects from anthropology to zoology. If a book can't be found on the shelves, the store's staff will order it.

The bookstore, which occupies a central location on the Kenyon campus, stocks such a large array of magazines that it has won national awards for its displays. It sells CDs, clothing, food and drink, glassware, greeting cards, stationery, and sundries. It also provides copiers and fax machines for student use. In her College Book, Lisa Birnbach calls it the best individual bookstore in America.

The bookstore also serves as a center of social life on campus. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, a reporter noted that the store functions as "a second living room. Here, customers can sit in armchairs, eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and read all day long without buying a thing. They can even leaf through a magazine, make a copy of an article, and put the publication back on the shelf--without once getting a cold stare from an employee."

Profits from bookstore operations benefit the College's general scholarship fund.