diff --git a/lib/build.js b/lib/build.js
index 9eca253aac0..c5ff8a6557b 100644
--- a/lib/build.js
+++ b/lib/build.js
@@ -173,10 +173,10 @@ function dependentLink (pkg, cb) {
 }
 
 
-// link each dep into this pkg's "dependencies" folder
+// link each dep into this pkg's "node_modules" folder
 function dependencyLink (pkg, cb) {
   pkg.link = pkg.link || {}
-  var dependencies = path.join(npm.dir, pkg.name, pkg.version, "dependencies")
+  var dependencies = path.join(npm.dir, pkg.name, pkg.version, "node_modules")
   asyncMap(pkg._resolvedDeps, function (dep, cb) {
     log.silly(dep, "dependency")
     var fromRoot = path.join(npm.dir, dep.name, dep.version)
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ function linkModules (pkg, target, cb) {
     writeShim
       ( path.join(pkgDir, mod[key])
       , path.join(target, key.replace(/\.js$/, '')+".js")
-      , path.join(versionDir, "dependencies")
+      , path.join(versionDir, "node_modules")
       , cb
       )
   }, cb)
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@ function linkBins (pkg, cb) {
   if (!pkg.bin) return cb()
   log.verbose(pkg._id, "linkBins")
   var binroot = npm.config.get("binroot")
-    , dep = path.join(npm.dir, pkg.name, pkg.version, "dependencies")
+    , dep = path.join(npm.dir, pkg.name, pkg.version, "node_modules")
   if (!binroot) return cb()
   if (!process.env.PATH || -1 === process.env.PATH.indexOf(binroot)) {
     log.warn("bins installing to "+binroot+", outside PATH")
diff --git a/lib/update-dependents.js b/lib/update-dependents.js
index bb2554b6610..69129bf00b2 100644
--- a/lib/update-dependents.js
+++ b/lib/update-dependents.js
@@ -159,7 +159,8 @@ function removeDependencyLinks (dep, pkg, other, cb) {
     // only support "@", not "-"
     , depsOnOld = path.join(depdir, "dependson", pkg.name+"-"+other)
     , depsOn = path.join(depdir, "dependson", pkg.name+"@"+other)
-    , deps = path.join(depdir, "dependencies", pkg.name)
+    , deps = path.join(depdir, "node_modules", pkg.name)
+    , depsOld = path.join(depdir, "dependencies", pkg.name)
     , dependentRoot = path.join( npm.dir
                                , pkg.name
                                , other
@@ -167,10 +168,16 @@ function removeDependencyLinks (dep, pkg, other, cb) {
                                )
     , dependentLinkOld = path.join(dependentRoot, dep.name + "-" + dep.version)
     , dependentLink = path.join(dependentRoot, dep.name + "@" + dep.version)
-  asyncMap([deps+".js", deps, depsOnOld, depsOn, dependentLink], rm, function (e) {
-    log.verbose( [deps+".js", deps, depsOnOld, depsOn, dependentLinkOld, dependentLink]
-               , "removed"
-               )
+    , rmList = [ deps+".js"
+               , deps
+               , depsOld
+               , depsOnOld
+               , depsOn
+               , dependentLinkOld
+               , dependentLink
+               ]
+  asyncMap(rmList, rm, function (e) {
+    log.verbose(rmList, "removed")
     cb(e)
   })
 }
@@ -180,7 +187,7 @@ function createDependencyLinks (dep, pkg, cb) {
                         , "dependson"
                         , pkg.name+"@"+pkg.version
                         )
-    , deps = path.join(depdir, "dependencies", pkg.name)
+    , deps = path.join(depdir, "node_modules", pkg.name)
     , targetRoot = path.join(npm.dir, pkg.name, pkg.version)
     , targetMain = path.join(targetRoot, "main.js")
     , targetLib = path.join(targetRoot, "lib")