Spirit of Independence

Dear Vancouver,

Pulpfiction Books is not closing.  Our friends at Book Warehouse are, unfortunately, shutting down.  At least one media outlet has confused our two businesses, leading to 300+ emails in my inbox this morning, phone ringing off the hook, & etc.

Opinion has it that it's impossible to run an independent bookstore and compete with online businesses, e-reading, etc.  This has not been my experience.

Sales are solid at all three of our shops (2422 Main Street; 1830 Commercial; 3133 West Broadway), where we continue to sell, buy and trade books every day.

In the last year, we have systematically opened accounts with almost every new book publisher & distributor in North America.  We can now obtain virtually any in-print book in 2-7 working days, typically (but not always) at 30% off Canadian cover price.

If you've never visited us before, or haven't been in for a while, we'd be glad to see you. 

I have always wanted to create one of North America's best bookstores in Vancouver, something on the order of Seattle's Elliott Bay, or Portland's Powell's, or San Francisco's Green Apple.  Please join my staff and I as we build a Vancouver institution day-by-day.

Sincerely,

Christopher Brayshaw
Owner, Pulpfiction Books

How Can We Help?

With Christmas fast approaching, an instant recap of what my microeconomics course calls "sustainable competitive advantage":

Most paid-in-advance special orders from us are now 30% off Canadian cover price. Ever feel like you had to buy something on-line, or from a corporate giant, because you suspected that buying local & independent was going to cost you more? That's a choice you no longer have to make.

What's more, if you order $100 or more of books from us at once, we'll deliver your books to your home or office, anywhere in the city of Vancouver, at no additional charge.

Q: How do you guys make any money at this?

A: By selling lots and lots of books, and by receiving an extra bit of margin from our favorite suppliers, based on the steadily increasing volume of our orders.

Q: Phone orders?

A: You bet. Visa, MC, AmEx. Or our wireless debit machine at your door, just like the pizza guy.

Most special orders from come as fast, or faster, than when ordered online.

Example: book ordered from Big Canadian Chain and shipped from Ontario to Vancouver: 5 to 7 working days.  Book ordered from PFB and shipped from Vancouver-based or Western Canadian supplier: 2 or 3 days.  Plus, when you order from us (or any other real bookstore, for that matter), you never pay shipping, handling, or border brokerage.  Nor do you have to wait in a 55-person lineup at your local Canada Post outlet, listening to Phil Collins sing "The Little Drummer Boy."

We hope you'll keep us in mind this holiday season.  If you have any questions about any book-related issue, please phone or email.  We are always happy to hear from you.

Why Indie Bookstores Matter, by Charles Demers

"Capitalism in Vancouver is an especially cruel mistress—by my last count there are only four business models left in this town that are guaranteed to turn a profit: sushi restaurant, grow-op, yoga gear supplier and being Bob Rennie.

So in a city where every day businesses (and individuals) fail and fall through the cracks, it’s not necessarily obvious why Vancouverites should care that their independent bookstores are dying.

The story generally goes that there are a tiny handful of people for whom the need to save these stores is a given, an article of faith; the rest of the population doesn’t particularly care, reads only a book or two a year anyway and doesn’t mind picking them up at a big-chain ‘bookstore’ that specializes in aromatherapy and exercise balls.

I’ve never been fully convinced of this pessimistic scenario. I’m constantly hearing about how nobody reads anymore, and yet everywhere I go people are reading. Every day, newspapers paint the picture of book-reading as a fringe activity, while their business pages describe how the richest companies in the world are jockeying for position in a race to provide people the electronic books of the near and distant future. So I think books do matter to people—the question is whether bookstores do.

Well, they do—and not just on the level of civic pride, though that’s part of it. Seattle is a great book town not only because of its Koolhaas library, but because of Left Bank Books and the Elliot Bay Book Company. It’s hard to imagine Victoria without Munro’s, or San Francisco without City Lights. Fact is, cool cities have cool, non-chain bookstores."

(via Megaphone)