I was sad to see in today's Citizen (on the front page, which meant I grabbed the paper and immediately exclaimed "No!" and sat down in shock) that Shirley Leishman Books in Westgate Mall is closing.
Leishman Books is Ottawa's oldest independent bookstore, and has been an Ottawa standby for 51 years. Personally, I had the great pleasure of working with Diane Walker on Rideau's renovations (Diane, co-owner of Leishman, also won the HarperCollins Canada hand-selling award in 2005). Philip and I spent an afternoon with Diane walking around the branch before construction started, comparing notes about visual merchandising, space, design, and display. I found in Diane a kindred spirit, and she had some interesting suggestions we incorporated into our final plans for the branch. She also was supportive of my ideas, including shelftalkers, and came back to visit after the renovations to see how we were doing.
The Citizen article doesn't state Leishman's closing date, but stop by soon, if you can. While you're at it, patronise The Collected Works, Perfect Books, Octopus Books, Books on Beechwood, Librarie du Soleil, Nicholas Hoare, or Kaleidoscope, and keep the independent bookstore alive.
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Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI've become a real regular at Leishman books while on my maternity leave and I'm sad but not really surprized. The Shoppers drugmart in Westgate has been selling bestsellers for 25-50% off the regular price for a few years now. This is very hard for a little store to compete with.
Ciao Courtney