A SAD FINAL CHAPTER
Astro Books to close after 31 years
After 31 years peddling comics and used books and dispensing wry humour, Astro Books is finally packing it in, victim to surging rent, high taxes and road construction.
The owners of what is one of the largest comic retailers in Canada, on Ste-Catherine St. a couple of blocks west of Guy St., were informed in January that their landlord had sold the building three months earlier and the new one intended to raise the rent from $3,500 a month to more than $9,000.
Astro Books had already been struggling financially, organizing a crowdfunding drive last year to help pay off their share of a $20,000 municipal tax bill. The rent hike sealed their fate. They have to vacate the premises by July 1.
“It’s been a lot of fun (and a lot of work), but frankly neither Mary, Betty, Mark nor I, at ages 67, 72, 74 and 68, are in the kind of shape needed to start over with a new location,” co-owner Paul Stock wrote in a message to customers on the store’s website.
Astro Books, also known as Librairie Astro, carried used books, new and used comics, CDs, DVDs, and collectible cards at their stores in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and downtown, but it was their comic book sales that kept them afloat for the last 15 years when the used book market slumped. Key to the comics sales was a reserve system for 400 clients (down from 600) for whom Astro puts aside new orders as deliveries come in each week. Customers, who would pay anywhere from $10 to $125 a week for their weekly comic fix, would pick them up at the store, or clerks would mail them out, some as far away as Taiwan. The store sold close to 100,000 comic books a year.
But co-owner Betty Stock, Paul’s sister, noted that sales were down by 30 per cent, in part, they suspect, due to construction that was plaguing local traffic and hindering customers from coming out.
She told the Montreal Gazette that after half a lifetime of serving book lovers and comic book fanatics, it would be hard to lead a life without interacting with customers.
“Our bodies are getting older, but our minds are still good,” she said Friday. “We’re going to have to find something to do with ourselves. Otherwise we’ll go crazy.
“But what can you do? That’s life.”
Customers have been kind, reaching out over Facebook and email to thank them for decades of service that enriched their lives. “They don’t treat us as shopkeepers. They treat us as friends and family,” one wrote.
In a sign of the closeness of that community, Paul Stock’s note to customers listed several other comic book stores that his customers could shift to for their weekly or monthly fix, including Marc Parenteau’s Comic Hunter on Papineau Ave., Komico on Décarie Blvd. near Queen Mary Rd., Cosmix on Décarie Blvd. in St-Laurent and Capitaine Québec, just across Ste-Catherine St. from Astro.
But he stressed customers should not switch over until after June 27, the last day the Stocks will be able to collect new deliveries for their customers.
“We need every last nickel we can get from you folks,” he wrote.
Betty Stock also said that if anyone wants to buy them out, they were open to offers. None have come yet.
Customers can expect sales starting at the end of this month.