City’s sole kids bookstore reaches unhappy ending
Kaleidoscope Kids, a haven for book-loving kids and their parents for a decade, is turning the page with the owners announcing they will close their doors on Bank Street in the Glebe.
The announcement from the city’s only children’s bookstore — one of only about a half-dozen in the country — was greeted with sadness from those seeking the perfect gift for a reluctant reader.
It was a tough decision, said Kelly Harrison, who opened Kaleidoscope in 2006 with Kim Ferguson and Karin Fuller. The trio met when their daughters were in senior kindergarten together. “When you’ve done something that you love for as long as we have it’s very difficult to decide that it’s time not to do that anymore,” Harrison said.
“The store has been open for almost 11 years and we have not paid ourselves a dime in all that time.”
The owners told themselves last summer they would work hard through Christmas and then reevaluate.
But the numbers showed that sales have been almost exactly the same for the last five years, despite the Lansdowne redevelopment across from their location on the ground floor of a condo building.
“That was enough to run the store,” Harrison said. “We always paid our bills on time and in full; we always paid our staff. But it was never going to be enough to pay ourselves. As much as we love something, there comes a time when you just have to say we’re not making this work in the way that it should.”
Three part-time staff were the first to learn that the store will close when the owners sell their unit at 1018 Bank St. They would also consider selling the business.
The owners — an on-call school librarian, a civil servant and an occupational therapist at the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre — were battling the same market forces as other independent booksellers.
“Our margins are smaller than the chains and the online retailers so it’s very difficult to complete, price becomes important to people,” Harrison said.
“And it should, but we would like to think we were offering fantastic customer service and knowledge and we really cared about putting the right book in a kid’s hand.
“It wasn’t just a sale, it was a connection. But honestly, we can hit the ball out of the park on service and passion, we can’t compete on price. If that’s the bottom line, we just can’t win.”
Customers, writers and even a book publisher took to the store’s Facebook page, leaving dozens of comments thanking the owners for promoting the love of reading and the work of local authors.
“Kaleidoscope has inspired and facilitated a love of literacy for so many children and mine in particular have many fond memories and shelves of wonderful books,” wrote one mom.
“And just as significant, you three K’s have inspired a community (and especially a group of girls) with your courage to be entrepreneurs. Feeling grateful for all that you have offered and wishing you much happiness in your next adventures.”
Harrison said that her own grandmother and parents fostered a love of reading in her and she feels it’s the greatest gift loving adults can give the children in their lives.
With knowledgeable advice, the store hoped to connect every kid with a book they’d love.
“Sometimes it’s more challenging to figure out what that is — that’s what we’ve been proud of working hard to do,” Harrison said.
“I’ve had a lot of people say in the last 72 hours that they feel that we were really instrumental in helping them with that.
“That’s a huge source of pride for us.”