his just in:
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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Anyone who’s had a crack at Grade 11 English will be familiar with the first line of A Tale of Two Cities. It also fits as an opener for what I have to tell you, with apologies to Mr. Dickens, and apologies to You.
Candace and I are, quite honestly, pretty devastated to announce that the doors of Aqua Books and EAT! bistro will be closing forever. We’ve had a great ride, but unfortunately the financial burden has become too much.
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This is really a blow to the “neighborhood” and to the book business in general. I mean, if a used book store can’t make it, what does that mean for new book bookstores? Can Chapters be far behind? Will they turn into large Starbucks with a small selection of books in the corner? When I got the email from Aqua Books, I immediately looked at the calendar. No, it’s not April 1. Still, maybe it is a ruse, to find out what their customers really feel about them. Well, here’s my 2 cents:
EAT! Bistro had good food, but served a niche market. I found it difficult to persuade my friends to eat there after the initial novelty wore off. The biggest culprits were portion size and unwillingness of EAT! to broaden the menu to serve the husbands of the women who eat there (face it – it was kind’uv a girly place to eat…)
I feel that I did my part to keep Kelly in business. I must have bought a hundred books from him that I will never read. I have thrown out my own old books to make room for his.
I have had my own issues with used bookstores, and I think that if I ran one, I would run it differently than Aqua books. I have paid over $10 for books I wanted, knowing full well that I could find the same book for the same price at Chapters on the 80% off table. My book prices would be closer to used book prices, and I would offer volume discounts. I would encourage hoarders like me to take inventory off the shelves to keep the cash flowing. Like the Prada store I think Kelly thought he was selling a premium product – hardly used books – and therefore could charge premium prices. I regard used stores like organized garage sales. Charge too much and I usually walk away empty handed. I think it hurts business to sell a few used books for a lot of money vs. a lot of books for little money. I think it hurts many business to operate that way.
What impact will this have on me? I am highly unlikely to be going out to find a new bookstore to fill a need for new books. In the past I have found that when I have a local used book store I go nuts collecting books in my current subject of interest. That used to be Star Trek books. Now it is philosophy and more general Sci-fi books. When the source dries up (or I move away), so does my interest in those areas. I have a collection of 200 or more Star Trek books for sale if anybody is interested. I think that in the near future I’ll be collating a shelving unit of my real keepers, and will send a thousand or more books to the curb. Or to the Children’s Hospital Book Sale.
Maybe I’ll wander over to Into The Music, and focus on used records!
