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Ballenford: Death of a great bookstore

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Earlier this week Ballenford Books sent out a distressed email announcing their intention to close after twenty-nine years as a Toronto institution. In her email (see it below), owner Susan Delean said “Toronto needs an architectural bookstore!” We do indeed. Ballenford Books has sold Spacing since we started this outfit nearly five years ago, and along with our other local stores, have been instrumental in making this magazine a going concern. Much more than just a bookshop, Ballenford was also a gallery and an exhibition space with a regular series of photographic and architectural shows. I stopped in yesterday to see how it was going, and was asked to encourage people to come by and buy up some of the remaining stock. They are liquidating, trying to close down the business without ruining their family finances. I have often said that “starting a magazine is the dumbest thing you can do in Canada” with regards to long term financial stability, personal and otherwise. Running an independent niche bookstore is much the same. If it wasn’t a labour of love, it likely would not exist — but sometimes even that love can’t overcome changes in the industry and/or the small Canadian market. As BlogTO mentioned in their fine eulogy the other day, Ballenford has been on the brink before, but this time it is final. Stop by and help them out.

WHERE: 600 Markham Street (Mirvish Village, by Honest Eds)

HOURS: Tue-Fri 9:30-2:30, Saturday 12-5

I want to begin by thanking many of you for your years of dedication and support of Ballenford Books, and – because of that support – this is a difficult letter to write.

Over the past few years, it has become ever more clear that Ballenford Books, is no longer a viable business. The cumulative effect of more schools turning to Master’s programs and away from textbook based teaching; with local University libraries sourcing books through mega-distributors in North America while coping with shrinking budgets; with the onslaught of the ‘big-box’ retailers; online shopping options; the new norm of discount pricing; and – most recently – the parity of the Canadian dollar with the US dollar – that the Canadian publishers were too slow to react to – has forced the store into a corner.

We have worked very hard over the years to look for new and innovative ways to distinguish ourselves and to capture new markets and to maintain relevance within our niche; but these efforts alone have not been enough to keep the business healthy.

Most of you have been wondering if you can help. The answer is YES! BUY BOOKS AND IN VOLUME! We are liquidating and trying to do so as quickly as possible. The current inventory is an impossible weight, and it alone stops any chance of a future.

I cannot express how devastating this is for me personally and for my family. I would love to continue, it is my love and passion, but find my personal liabilities overwhelming and potentially irretrievable.

I have thought long and hard about potential partnerships and internal changes that might help long term, but ultimately have yet to find or resolve a realistic and sustainable option. I AM ALL EARS, if anyone has a worthwhile suggestion – now is the time to speak up. Toronto needs an architectural bookstore!

Photo via Jargol.

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15 comments

  1. Bookstores are dying because of Internet bookstores, right? An apparent truth, with a truth inside of it. The hidden truth is that retail books are just too expensive, and that is a fault of the publishing/distributing industry: just as it is with recordings.

    The technology exists for bookstores to have little of their money in inventory, and to print to order in-store. Some estimates are that a full-sized trade-paperback would cost $5, instead of $30. I’ll tell you this: even without this technology, similar books in Japanese retail cost $10. Why is that?

    People turned away from ‘bricks and mortar’ bookstores because books cost too much, not because they prefer the online book experience. Don’t we all still browse in-store, whether that is where we actually buy? A $30 book is not an impulse buy, but even a $10 book could be.

    I suppose the reason that the publishing industry has not digitized and regionalised its printing, is that the profit isn’t enough to invest in the new technology. Publishers and distributers still get to sell books, even if the bookstores go bankrupt.

  5. Print-on-demand would not be feasible for many of the books that Ballenford carries: Books with many photographs, often reproduced in colour or in duotone, with a lot of attention paid to the selection of printing stock and the quality of reproduction. Print-on-demand may work for books that are mainly text or that contain line art or photographs where the quality is not important. But the technology is not yet there for on-demand printing of fine art books.

  6. Print-on-demand books look like shitty 600-dpi laser printouts with the worst kind of glued perfect binding. Obviously *completely appropriate* for architectural books.

  7. What horrible news. I remember going there often when picking up books for my architecture classes. Could something be done to save it? It would be such a loss to just let it slip away like this.

  8. David, thank you for writing eloquently what Joe couldn’t. I am sure you are both quite right about books where text is not dominant, which was not the type of book I was thinking of. I should have clarified that, especially since the challenges to most bookstores may not be the same as those to Ballenford.

    Alexander, what you say seems to make sense, but bear in mind that ‘people bought books in bookstores all the time before internet shopping became an option’ because they did not have another choice. Now they do.

  10. Isn’t this kind of inevitable? Internet bookstores are cheaper and have much greater selection and it is almost impossible to compete with this. Amazon.com killed the independent bookstore.

  11. Well, Aidan, try this on for eloquent size: Every proposed alternative to professionally-designed and -manufactured books has failed to take off, with the sole exception of audiobooks of popular authors’ works from mainstream publishers. E-books, print-on-demand books, the lot: Nothing has made a dent in the publishing industry. And in no sense whatsoever would print-on-demand books supplant a book*store*, unless you have something in mind like Brewster Kahle’s bookmobile.
    Hence, to put it eloquently, Aidan, your faith in technology as a saviour for an underused bookstore is misplaced. What would save Ballenford is higher sales, not a laser printer churning out letter-sized pages glued together. Eloquently stated, the idea sucks.
    Aidan might want to read Hyphen Press’s blog to learn just how much of a difference something as simple as binding makes.

  12. No it’s not inevitable; some people still prefer paying a bit more money for the experience of going to a nice local bookstore. For me, it’s impossible for internet shopping to compete with the latter. I think there should be opportunities for people to interact once in a while, like this store did with people of architectural propensities. Partly for this reason I avoid getting a credit card.

  13. The experience of a great bookstore, especially one specializing in, and staffed with people who share an interest or passion with you is wonderful. Ballenford will be missed.

  14. It’s true — good books, like good clothing shops — are currated experiences rather than just “shopping.”

  15. Well Joe, you certainly proved one of my points.