Bryan Prince faces final chapter
Popular Westdale bookstore shutting for good on Thursday
It’s the end of an era for a Hamilton literary institution.
Beloved independent bookstore Bryan Prince Bookseller announced it is closing up shop Thursday after serving the community for close to 30 years from its Westdale Village location.
Many factors led to the decision, which was not made lightly or “in haste,” owner of the iconic west-end bookshop Kerry Cranston-Reimer said Monday.
“We had lots of ideas of what we wanted the store to be, and we just ran out of time unfortunately,” she told The Spectator.
Cranston-Reimer, who spent most of her adult life in the store, having worked there for 25 years, said the decision to close was not based on the “death of the physical book or independent bookselling.”
But she acknowledged the “challenges of being an indie bookstore in 2018.”
“We had a vision for what our future was going to look like,” she said. “There were just too many challenges in the way.”
The shop’s roots are traced back to its namesake, Bryan Prince, who opened his first bookstore in Dundas in 1977 in partnership with Joanna Chapman. He left 12 years later to start his own shop — Bryan Prince Bookseller — which he turned over to two longtime employees, Cranston-Reimer and Tracey Higgins, in 2011.
The Spectator previously reported Prince was able to offer them a good deal on the space the store occupied on King Street West because he owned the entire building.
McMaster University business professor Marvin Ryder said news of the shop’s closure caught him by surprise, but stressed it should not be seen as a bellwether of the death of small retail stores.
He said he always saw Bryan Prince Bookseller as an example of an independent store successfully taking on the big chains.
“My argument is, if you can’t win on price ... then you have to compete on service,” Ryder said. “This is certainly what Bryan Prince did.”
Since its inception, the shop has competed by offering a level of personal service different than what patrons get in megastores like Chapters.
“We tried very hard to be a part of the community and we always felt very much like we were more than just a bookstore,” said Cranston-Reimer.
In addition to selling books, the Westdale shop has consistently striven to be a community hub — offering rental space for local writers and academics to be creative, building a new event space, responding to the demands of local customers, working with groups in and around the city and giving awards to schools.
The store often hosted book launches, readings and fundraisers — making it a destination for touring authors as well as local ones.
Cranston-Reimer said she heard Monday from small presses and bigger publishers whose authors the shop always tried to make room for.
Part of the difficulty in making the decision to close was knowing there are not many other outlets for these creators, she noted.
“There’s some books on our shelves and I’m not sure if they would be found on the shelves elsewhere in the area,” she said. “It’s really hard to know ... that some of those authors may not get that visibility.”
News of the shop’s closure also resonated with readers, with many taking to social media to express their remorse.
The outpouring is likely due to several factors, Ryder noted, including the fond childhood memories held by those who grew up in the area and visited the shop as kids alongside the shop’s longtime community presence.
“It’s a part of the fabric of the city that people want to nurture and grow,” he said.
The shop will be open until 9 p.m. on its final day. The store’s product is on sale for 30 per cent off until Thursday and whatever remains will be sent back to the publishers, Cranston-Reimer said.
There may be a closing up party held in early April once all of the returns have been done, but firm plans have not yet been made.
“I really appreciate all of the support the city and the readers in Hamilton have given us over the years,” she said.