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BOOKS
BOOKS Indie booksellers will celebrate their special day
by Charlie Smith
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Black Bond Books president Cathy Jesson has many fond memories from the annual TED conferences in Vancouver. For the past nine years, her company has been setting up a pop-up store at the Vancouver Convention Centre as TED’s official on-site bookseller. The Black Bond Books staff not only get to watch the lectures on-screen for free in real time but they’ve also served some famous visitors.
One year, Jesson recalled, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dropped by. Another year, Monica Lewinsky came to the counter with a stack of books.
“She was just the nicest, nicest person,” Jesson told the Straight by phone a few days after this year’s conference. “Her talk the next day was really, really good.”
At this month’s TED conference, her company sold an Annie Leibovitz book of photographs for $8,000 and a book of David Hockney’s art for $4,500. She didn’t disclose the buyers’ identities.
“So many of these people [at the conference] are in tech but, boy, they buy a bunch of books,” Jesson said.
In 1963, Jesson’s mother launched Black Bond Books in Brandon, Manitoba, and opened her first B.C. store in White Rock in 1977. Jesson and her siblings followed her to B.C. as the family opened more outlets in the Fraser Valley.
The company now owns six bookstores
Black Bond staff, including Caitlin Jesson (left) and mother Cathy (right), are regulars at TED. in the Lower Mainland, including the Book Warehouse outlets on West Broadway and Main Street in Vancouver.
Jesson revealed that she was only 13 years old when she started working in her mother’s bookstore because she disliked babysitting. Recently, Jesson took on a new partner in the company—her adult daughter Caitlin, who runs the Book Warehouse store on West Broadway. Jesson said that there are many other women who head independent bookstores across the country.
On Saturday (April 30), Black Bond Books and Book Warehouse will celebrate the second annual Canadian Independent Bookstore Day along with Kidsbooks, Banyen Books, Indigenous-owned Iron
This has not occurred, even though we’re into the third year of the pandemic.
We can also only trust the B.C. government when it gets real about long COVID.
Only when these things happen will we believe that those who have the power to save a large number of lives are COVID Aware.
We were thrilled when the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Alondra Nelson, joined our club last month when she issued a statement entitled “Let’s Clear the Air on COVID”.
Two weeks later, the White House issued a memorandum on addressing the long-term effects of COVID-19.
“More than 200,000 children in the United States have lost a parent or caregiver to the disease,” President Joe Biden said. “Each soul is irreplaceable, and the families and communities left behind are still reeling from profound loss.”
We’re reeling from profound loss here in B.C. But we’re also furious that so little is being done by the COVID Unaware to prevent more of these tragic losses in the future. g Dog Books, and hundreds of other retailers across the country.
According to the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association (CIBA), participants will be offering customer giveaways and discounts. Anyone who buys a book from a Canadian independent bookstore on that day will be eligible for one entry in a contest offering gift certificates of $250, $500, and $1,000. Those who buy books written or illustrated by Canadian creators will receive two entries. The winners will be selected on May 2.
“Customers came out and supported us last year,” Jesson recalled. “I think we’re back bigger and better this year.”
Jesson is a CIBA cofounder and board member. According to her, the retail book business has held up remarkably well during the pandemic.
“We didn’t know whether our customers would continue to support us or if they would go the easy route, which is just to click and collect,” Jesson said. “They’ve supported us in amazing numbers.”
In fact, she added, last year was one of the strongest years on record for Black Bond Books.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a customer come in and say, ‘I don’t think you’ll have this but…’ and the number of times we do,” Jesson noted. “Just because you’re smaller doesn’t mean you don’t have the selection. It’s maybe just a little more curated.” g
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