Quill and Quire

Bookselling

« Back to
Quillblog

Q&A: Bookseller and blogger Julie Gordon on opening shop in uncertain times

J.H. Gordon Books owner Julie Gordon celebrated the grand opening of her used bookstore in downtown Hamilton last week. Quillblog asked the library assistant-turned-bookseller about opening a bookstore in uncertain economic times and why she decided to document that process, warts and all, on her blog, Reno Challenge 2012.

Why did you want to open a used bookstore?
I’ve always had a passion for used bookstores. There’s a treasure hunt aspect to it. I thought this would be a great thing to do, but it was one of those pie-in-the-sky things that you just never think will happen.

Will you sell new books as well?
I’m going to try to figure out who my customers are and what they’d like to see before bringing in new books. I don’t want to compete with Chapters, so I want to offer something different, something you can’t get there.

I really like Gaspereau Press: they make beautiful books. They’ve published a few Hamilton authors as well “ John Terpstra comes to mind. I also really like Quattro Books, and I’ll be contacting our local publisher, Wolsak & Wynn, because they publish a lot of our local authors.

You and your husband are originally from Alberta. You’ve also lived in Toronto. Why did you decide to buy a space in Hamilton?

It seems to be the same story over and over: it’s not ebooks or declining customer-base that are closing bookstores, it’s the landlord jacking up rents in areas that are gentrifying. So our goal was always to own our space. And it wasn’t going to happen in Calgary or Toronto because the prices are too high. We came to Hamilton four years ago for real estate. It’s one of the most undervalued medium-size cities in the country.

We liked this neighbourhood, the International Village, and we were starting to see things happen here “ interesting shops opened up, the area was improving. There was also no bookstore here. One of the more rewarding things is that I have customers coming in every day saying, Thank you for putting a bookstore in our neighbourhood. We haven’t had one here in 20 years.

Why did you decide to blog about the ups and downs of renovating and setting up the store?
When we bought the store we had this very tight timeline, and we were very naive to think we could do all this in four months. I thought it would be interesting to give people the idea that this is what you think is going to happen, this is how long it will take, and then this is how long it actually takes. I thought I’d give people a step-by-step, day-by-day journal of what it takes to buy an old, rundown building and convert it into living and work spaces.

What were some of the biggest surprises during the renovations?
Two days after we bought the building, when we still had tenants in here, the basement filled with raw sewage. My husband was in the basement, literally shovelling shit for a weekend until we could get a plumber in here. We had to replumb the entire sewer system under the building.

Also, the store was very small and cramped, the ceilings were very low. Once we started demolition, we found out there were actually three false ceilings. We now have these wonderful 14-foot ceilings.

Were there any benefits to blogging about this process?
It was stress relief, because I was trying to find the humour in it. Some days it was really hard to find anything funny about it, especially when we were delayed by the city and it seemed like money was flying out of our pockets.

I also got the attention of the City of Hamilton. The mayor actually called me; he had been reading my blog. And the director of Hamilton Economic Development had been reading my blog, so I’ve since sat down with them to discuss how I think this [permit] process could be improved.

They also contacted me to let me know that because I was located in a neighbourhood with a BIA, I could apply for facade grants, which paid for half of my signage and window lettering.

Why did you decide to publish a running tally of the cost of the renovations?
That was my husband’s idea, he’s the finance guy. He said, People have to know what this costs. The little things add up. It was just to give readers a real, honest estimate of what it takes to do this. [Note: the current tally is nearly $35,000]

What advice do you have for someone looking to open a new business?
I’d encourage anyone to go and meet with their city councillor and the building department if they’re going to do any extensive renovations and to really push them for clarity.

Click on the thumbnails for photos capturing the renovation process at J.H. Gordon Books.

By

May 17th, 2012

4:20 pm

Category: Bookselling

Tagged with: J.H. Gordon Books