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Art & Books

Toronto Women’s Bookstore goes down

It’s official. The Toronto Women’s Bookstore announced on its Facebook page that the store will close on November 30.

“You can’t ignore the numbers. I have to get out before I get any further into debt,” says Victoria Moreno, who’s been operating the store for the past two and a half years.

Bookstores are an endangered species, she says. “From the author to the retail scene, everything is changing. Now that you can download e-books or get books direct from the publishers’ sites, the role of the bookstore is diminishing.”

Anjula Gogia, who was the TWB’s co-manager from 1996 to 2006, says it’s an incredible loss, especially for left-leaning readers, queers, anti-violence feminists and feminists of colour. At their peak in the early 80s, there were over 130 women’s bookstore in North America. There are fewer than 10 now. Mother Tongue in Ottawa also recently closed.

“It’s especially hard for independent bookstores,” Gogia says. “Chapters and Indigo came on like a bulldozer, and once e-books come into the picture, an indie store can’t last without a bread-and-butter base.”

For the Toronto Women’s Bookstore, that base was course books. But what used to be a tight relationship, especially with the University of Toronto, has loosened considerably.

“In 2006, 70 per cent of our sales came from university course books, and they were already going into steep decline,” Gogia recalls.

“Students are resourceful,” says Moreno. “They can now buy used books online. The U of T bookstore offers textbook rentals, and there are U.S. websites that post complete books free of charge.”

Moreno says the public events sponsored by the store always gave the TWB a boost, bringing in new people and reuniting older women in the community.

“But the purchases weren’t there. We were spending too much money getting the events off the ground and then selling maybe two books.”

She’s planning a mammoth two-day sale to take place in November. It’s a great opportunity to snap up all kinds of stock. Moreno says everything must go, and she means it.

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