Two Richmond book sellers have reached the final chapter in their retail operations and will be closing their doors next month.
Both Black Bond Books at Lansdowne Centre and the Chapters location on Ackroyd Road are shutting down and are in the midst of sales to liquidate their stock.
For Cathy Jesson, owner of privately run Black Bond Books said sales over the last year at the Lansdowne Centre store dropped 25 per cent signalling the decision to end the near decade-long run at the mall.
Jesson owed declining sales to competition from online sources, chronic low traffic in the mall, changing demographics in Richmond that has English as a second language for increasingly more residents, and the lure of big box-style sellers, although she was surprised to learn the local Chapters was also closing.
Jesson said she’d discussed with mall management about finding a new space in Lansdowne Centre, but was unable to find one suitable to draw more customers.
“And at this point we’re not willing to take on a bigger risk and continue,” she said, adding the sales dip is unique to Richmond which is one of 10 markets where Black Bond Books operates.
“We’re doing fine elsewhere. In fact, we’re opening a brand new store on Main Street (Main St. and King Edward Blvd.) in Vancouver next month,” she said.
Over the years in business locally, Jesson said staff at her store have done a good job cultivating clientele and supporting local authors with in-store appearances.
But that proved to not be enough in the end to bolster the bottom line.
“I feel bad leaving Richmond and have had plenty of people telling me about what they considered to be great places to relocate,” Jesson. “But at this time we are just going to consolidate and run the stores we have left.”
A close out sale where customers can buy two books and get the third on free has doubled sales. But that impressive, short-term, turnaround has come too late.
The last day for Black Bond Books at Lansdowne Centre is May 31.
Bronwyn Bailey, marketing manager at Lansdowne Centre said the mall is sorry to
see Black Bond Books close down and addressed the matter of customer traffic.
“Lansdowne Centre has been getting steadily busier over the past several years, especially with the opening of ICBC (Driver Licensing Centre) and Target late last year, we have seen a dramatic increase in traffic,” she said.
A few blocks away at Chapters, closing day is also May 31. But company officials did not elaborate why the Richmond location was shutting down.
“Like every great retailer, we review lease arrangements for all of our store locations when they near expiry,” said Janet Eger, vice president, public affairs with Indigo Books & Music Inc. in an email. “In the case of our Chapters Richmond location, we have chosen not to renew our lease and have made the decision to close the store to the public on May 31.”
Eger added the company is “working closely with our human resources team, the regional manager and the store leadership team to support employees through this transition.”
On Wednesday signs posted on the store’s front windows advertised a 50 per cent closing sale discount on some merchandise.
Recently, Chapters closed two locations in Toronto.
