Ten years ago, a Burnaby man had a dream to leave behind the corporate world and do something else – something invigorating, something interesting, something he’d never done before.
While dreams like these rarely come true, in the case of Paul Kirkpatrick, it did, and the result was a place where readers, book lovers’ and collectors can all call home.
Kirkpatrick is the owner of Companion Book at Hastings Street near Gilmore Avenue. This month, the bookstore is celebrating 10 years in the Heights but Kirkpatrick can still remember when the store was just a far off dream.
“I was escaping from the corporate world – and the craziness and bureaucracy and politics and all that stuff – and I decided on a bookstore. That’s what I wanted to do, so I was looking around all over the place for a location,” he said.
Kirkpatrick was initially looking at stores in malls, but a realtor friend suggested a street front location instead, more specifically, in the Heights.
As a Burnaby resident, Kirkpatrick was aware of the Heights but hadn’t spent much time in the area.
For several days, Kirkpatrick wandered up and down Hastings Street, talking to merchants and people on the street, and checking things out.
“It was really friendly and everyone seemed to know each other. It was more like the small towns I grew up in than Vancouver,” he said.
Coming from a small town in Ontario, the Heights was seductive. Kirkpatrick eventually found a space that matched exactly what he was looking for in a bookstore. Unfortunately, it was still occupied by an Italian tailor shop who had been there since the early 1960s.
“I tried to convince him (to sell), because he was in his late ’70s, that he should just close down his business, and I even offered him a pile of cash to just close down his business and let me rent the space,” he recalled.
Well, the aging Italian tailor wasn’t as easy a sell as Kirkpatrick had hoped. On top of the “pile of cash” he offered, the tailor required some additional motivation – Kirkpatrick had to buy the tailor shop, inventory and all.
“It was a matter of pride with him,” he said. “So for exactly one month I was in the menswear business.”
For one month, Kirkpatrick sold off as much of the stock as possible in order to clear out the space and make room for the bookstore. When the stock was finally gone, he set about designing the shop customers see today. A short four months later, Companion Book opened its doors at the end of November 2004.
“I had gone around to garage sales and other bookstores and bought stock, enough that I rented a garage,” Kirkpatrick said. “I had filled it with books, and I figured, ‘OK, I’ve got enough to fill the store.’”
Boy was he wrong. Kirkpatrick’s stock only filled about two shelves on each bookcase in the store. It took him about one-and-a-half years to fill the remaining shelves.
“There was a lot of people that believed in me,” he said. “They’d come in and trade their books. It didn’t look like I had much to trade for at that point, but they were willing to take credit on their books and trust me.”
The store, which is reminiscent of most pre-Chapters’ bookstores, was designed with readers and book lovers’ in mind.
Kirkpatrick did a lot of research on what makes a good bookstore prior to opening the doors. He determined the number one complaint from bookstore customers was poor lighting, so he installed rows and rows of lighting that run above every shelf.
When it first opened, Companion Book’s stock was reflective of Kirkpatrick’s own taste in literature. The science-fiction section was the dominant section of the store (and to some degree, still is), but as time went on Kirkpatrick brought in more and more books his customers were interested in.
The romance section, for example, was one Kirkpatrick initially overlooked because it wasn’t something that interested him. Today, the romance section takes up almost an entire row of bookshelves.
The store also carries non-fiction books on spirituality, biographies, mysteries, horror, crime books and children’s books.
“We tend to have a lot of titles that, if they’re not out of print, they’re a little bit older so Chapters and those guys don’t have them on their shelves anymore,” Kirkpatrick said.
A unique part of the store is the trade-in policy. Most of the books you’ll find inside the shop were brought in by customers and traded for credits towards the purchase of more books.
“(Customers) trade their books, they get credits,” Kirkpatrick said. “We figure out which ones we want, and we are picky.”
After 10 years in the business, Companion Book can afford to be picky. The store makes about 95 per cent of its business on trade-ins, and accepting only the better-quality books helps to draw in new customers who haven’t shopped at a used bookstore before, Kirkpatrick said.
“That’s the way we like them. I want good ones so that we have a good stock to offer people,” he added.
People trading in books get about half the amount the book will be priced at, in credits. These credits can be used towards the purchase of more books. In addition to the huge selection of used books, Companion Book also sells some new books and rare collectible books.
When asked if Kirkpatrick has any intention of slowing down, he replied with a simple and certain, ‘No.’
“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve made a lot of really good friends up here, and I really feel like we’ve become a part of the community,” he said. “I’m really glad to be a centre for people who like books and like to read.”
In celebration of Companion Book’s 10th anniversary, from Nov. 1 to 10, customers get 20 per cent off any book in the store.
For more info visit www.companionbook.com.
