"We're really going to miss working with these groups-they define our community," he said.
They were great supporters of Vancouver Opera, the Cultch, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Playhouse, Bard on the Beach, Vancouver International Film Festival, Music Festival Vancouver, and numerous other cultural organizations. The other owners of the store, like Sharman, were musicians. A business is nothing more than its customers and staff, and we have been blessed with the loyalty of both." "We were successful for so many years because of our incredible staff, and they have been extremely loyal through the difficult decision to close. "Bookselling in Canada can be a difficult proposition at the best of times, and discount bookselling adds even more difficulty," Sharman said in a statement today. Sharman has announced that his leases are expiring and this cherished book retailer in Vancouver will be no more. In all the years that I've been visiting Book Warehouse stores, I can't recall ever once been treated badly or dismissively by any of the employees.Īnd now, it's all coming to an end. How much have people in this city learned about history and politics? How much fiction have they enjoyed? And how much more aware are they of our environment, thanks to Sharman and his staff? Today, Sharman issued a statement saying that Book Warehouse sold more than 10 million books since it opened in 1980. It just provided me with an incredible education at an affordable price. Over the years, Sharman also had bookstores in the lower part of Granville Street, in Yaletown, on Davie Street, and on West 10th Avenue near UBC.īook Warehouse was one of those companies that gave this city its soul. The flagship store in recent years was at 632 West Broadway, not too far from a new Canada Line station. But the best surprises, in my mind, were always closer to the back.
#BOOK WAREHOUSE OUTLET FULL#
A few feet away was a bin full of bargains.
#BOOK WAREHOUSE OUTLET FREE#
All the newest hardcovers would be laid out like candy just inside the front door near the free newspapers. It invariably had the capacity to surprise.įor the first few years of this century, I spent a lot of time in North Vancouver, where I would regularly drop into the Book Warehouse at Londsdale near 15th Avenue.
But there was something about the Book Warehouse's less structured approach that always appealed to me. It was always so perfectly laid out and organized. I also spent time in the Duthie Books outlet down the street. And it had a great selection of coffee-table books, perhaps because it was so roomy. It was a wide-open, glorious outlet with so much room in the aisles. Later in the 1990s when I moved to Kitsilano, his big old store on West 4th Avenue became a regular distraction for me. These books could be about anything-music, history, psychology, the natural environment, or international trade. Usually, I just browsed before coming across something that I was unable to leave the store without. Rarely did I go into a Book Warehouse looking for a specific title. I stumbled across some of my all-time favourites in Sharman's stores, including Craig Unger's dazzling House of Bush, House of Saud and Ron Rosenbaum's spectacular Explaining Hitler. It carried books from authors ranging from Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader to more mainstream writers like Thomas L. The Book Warehouse was everyman's store, with a particularly strong nonfiction section. Banyen still exists on West 4th Avenue near Alma Street. And Banyen Books was then a powerhouse on West Broadway, filling a demand for spiritual growth and self-help books in the city. Granville Books had its charms, thanks in part to its frizzy-haired proprietor, Bob Cole, and its vast selection of magazines.
In those days, Duthie Books was the establishment's favourite store, with all the important titles in various locations. King and his staff managed to source books on a breathtaking array of topics that couldn't be found on any other store shelves in the city. In those days, I was a regular visitor to his store on Robson Street because I was a student and the prices were so damn good.
#BOOK WAREHOUSE OUTLET TV#
The CEO of the Book Warehouse first caught my attention with his snappy TV commercials in the 1980s, where he would invariably be carrying his trombone. Sharman King has always been my favourite book retailer in Vancouver.
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