While downtown Laura and I noticed a huge line up outside of Casablanca bookstore. I thought it was a sale, but was sad to see it was a going out of business sale. Everything priced under 5 bucks was free, and everything priced over 5 bucks was one dollar. Great for us, bad for the downtown core. This place was PACKED with people walking out with boxes full of magazines, books, movies, shelves, etc. I got a couple of great finds myself, my favourite being a book of photos from Charles Peterson who's work you have seen if you ever bought any early 90s Sub Pop album. Sad to see this place go.
Casablanca bookstore owner ready to turn the page
KITCHENER — After more than 26 years in business, Mark Pettigrew is selling his landmark store Casablanca Books on King Street West.
Pettigrew opened the shop in June 1986 at 36 Ontario St. N. when the downtown looked very different.
Back then there were five cinemas in the core and access to the internet was restricted to a handful of American academics, government officials and military leaders. Big box stores were just emerging on the retail landscape.
Through all of those changes, the used-book trade remained a fixture of downtown retail. The much touted threats from huge web-based companies and enormous bookstores at suburban power centres failed to derail the business. Now Pettigrew wants out on his own terms.
“I have been thinking about changing careers for a number of years now actually, and I just thought: ‘The time is now,’ ” Pettigrew said.
In 1997, the store was moved to its current location at 146 King St. W. It tripled in size and revenues increased as well. But now the lease is up for renegotiation and Pettigrew, 51, decided it was a good time for a big change.
The downtown cinemas generated a lot of foot traffic that brought people into the used-book shop.
The internet has hit parts of the business hard — used CDs and DVDs in particular. But the sale of used books remains strong 22 years after the rise of the web.
Then along came e-readers and computer tablets.
“The books have stayed stable up until the last year or two when there was a bit of a dip, but they stayed strong.” Pettigrew said. “We still make money.”
The rare book business continued to flourish even as the sale of mainstream fiction slowed a little.
Some of the best days for business occur during major festivals — the Kitchener Blues Festival, Cruising on King, the annual parade of vintage cars, and the Canada Day celebrations in front of City Hall.
As a teenager Pettigrew collected comics and frequented the City Lights Bookstore on Richmond Street in downtown London, where he grew up. When he was 18, Pettigrew sold his collection of 1,100 comics for $650. That same collection would now be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I could have bought a house with it now,” Pettigrew said.
After working in City Lights Bookstore for three-and-a-half years, Pettigrew moved to Kitchener and opened Casablanca Books.
“I knew how to buy, I knew how to sell and I knew how to price,” Pettigrew said.
Over the years Pettigrew sold some used books that fetched thousands of dollars — first editions of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and a beautiful leather-bound set of books on the history of Egypt that was 100 years old.
Pettigrew said the resale market for mainstream fiction is good for three to five years after publication, but books on art, philosophy, literature, mysticism, local history and military history have an enduring appeal.
If the business is not sold by the end of September, Pettigrew said he may sell off the stock and close it. But he would rather sell it and see the bookstore remain on King Street.
“I know a lot of people have been coming and would miss my store,” Pettigrew said.
The owners of the other two used-book stores in the downtown were saddened by the news of Pettigrew’s pending departure. The three stores generate traffic and customers for each other.
John Poag, the co-owner of Second Look Books at 31 King St. W., opened that business just weeks after Pettigrew opened Casablanca Books in 1986.
“Our business is doing better than it ever has,” Poag said as he stands amid stacks of books that need to be priced and shelved.
There are more books for children and teenagers than ever before, and Poag said the past 35 years has been a “golden age” for book publishing and even the internet has not been able to squelch the love of reading and collecting books.
The store was at 33 Queen St. S. for 15 years before moving to its current location. For the last five years on Queen Street, the owners noticed a decline in sales and they did not know whether to blame that on the rise of book selling on the internet or a general decline in the neighbourhood.
But since the move to King Street in late 2010 the store has surpassed all of its old sales records.
Scott Hunter is also amazed that his sales of used books and new magazines remain strong in the age of internet retailing and big box stores.
“We had a pretty good year overall last year and we are pretty well on par now,” said Hunter, who bought the oldest used bookstore in the city last year — KW Book Store at 308 King St. W.
“People are still reading,” Hunter said. “I think it has a lot to do with the explosion in teen books over the last 10 years. Those kids are still reading, they are upgrading to sci-fi and fantasy stuff and going back to classics.”
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