Locations

The Wee Book Inn is a used books store first established in Edmonton in 1971 by Darwin Luxford. It expanded during the 1980s, adding more locations in Edmonton. Currently, there are three stores: Whyte Avenue, Jasper Avenue, and 118th Avenue. The expansion to multiple locations has allowed the Wee Book Inn to offer a greater selection of books, and to shape the materials available according to the interests of specific communities in the city.

Cats

The Wee Book Inn is known in Edmonton for the cats that live at each location: Fleur at Whyte Avenue (see photo to left), Fergie at Jasper Avenue, and Saku at 118th Avenue. Cats were originally kept in Medieval Age European archives, libraries, and monasteries to keep rodents away. Although that use is quite antiquated in the 21st century, the tradition stuck with used book stores all over the world.

The cats are an essential component of the success of the Wee Book Inn. Customers love the cats. It makes the Wee Book Inn more than just a book store; it becomes a recognizable part of the community, a place that feels like home. It is no coincidence that the logo of the Wee Book Inn sports a cat sleeping on an open book. Several times a day, customers will stop by just to say hi to their favourite cat; others travel to all locations just to meet each one. The cats are local favorites; but they have also achieved wider renown; for example, they appeared in a CBC article titled 12 purr-fect Canadian bookstore cats.

The cats are cultural icons, fostering an identity for the Wee Book Inn and accomplishing several things: first, they separate the Wee Book Inn from other sellers; second, they provide a unique identity to each branch of the Wee Book Inn; third, they create a link between shop, reading and home. Many customers, for instance, will tell staff about how the book store cat reminds them of their own cat, or a cat they used to own as a child. And when that experience is combined with finding a book or author that you love, or your favourite Dr. Seuss or Robert Munsch book from when you were a child, the feeling invoked and the relationship created – a sense of community – is priceless.

Purchasing Books and 2 for 1 Trading

The Wee Book Inn is a used book store, so every book they get is second-hand. Customers exchange books for cash, store credit (which is twice the cash value), or 2-for-1 trading. Staff members assess every book brought in for age, condition, format and popularity, as well as stocking levels, prior to deciding whether or not a book is accepted. The vast majority of customers are just looking to get rid of their books. Some of the more popular reasons for getting rid books include downsizing, moving across the country or overseas, or the books belong to someone who recently passed away. For casual traders primarily concerned with reading, the best deal is to get the store credit, which, again, is twice the cash value. But some customers aim to profit from book sales. In fact, for a few regulars, selling books to the Wee Book Inn is a significant part of the way they make their living. They go to garage sales and home foreclosures, get boxes of books at low prices, and then resell them for a profit.

2-for-1 trading is popular with a certain type of reader. Most of the showroom floor of the Wee Book Inn is populated by genre fiction pocket books such as Thriller, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Western, Historical Fiction, and General Fiction. The popular authors in these genres tend to write in series, and readers will often read an entire series at once. The 2-for-1 trading system works best for these customers as it allows them to trade in all of their books, for example, from James Patterson’s Alex Cross series for some of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Or, to cite another example, all of their Nora Roberts books for Danielle Steel books. While the 2-for-1 trading system is valid for anything the Wee Book Inn sells, the deal works best for customers who read the genre fiction pocket books. Like the cats, this policy doesn’t actually or directly benefit the store monetarily. But, like the cats, it’s a service that the Wee Book Inn is known for; it’s something not offered at most book stores, and it caters to a type of reader that will return again and again, and likely also make other purchases. Moreover, it lets readers of popular literature know that their patronage, and their reading practices, are valued. This, too, is an important instance of community building as it contributes, along with the cats, to a sense that this is a place where the reader belongs.

Demographics and Sales

Mostly middle-aged men read thrillers, mysteries, and westerns. Middle-aged women tend to read romance, historical, and genre fiction. Horror and science fiction/fantasy are read equally by men and women of all ages. Popular pocket book genre fiction authors include the usual suspects: Clive Cussler, Debbie Macomber, Stephen King, Louis L’amour, and Jean M. Auel, for example. But readers make choices according to their own specific interests. For instance, one customer who prefers the thriller and mystery books said that he specifically reads the novels that take place in a court room, such as John Grisham books.

The layout of each store is designed to make it easy for most readers to get what they are looking for, and demographic factors are taken into account. For example, the Whyte Ave location has two floors. Older people tend to read romance, general fiction, western, historical fiction, and thriller/mystery pocket books. Because it’s difficult for many older readers to take the stairs, all of those sections are kept on the bottom floor. It is also important to note that, for genre fiction, the Wee Book Inn almost exclusively carries the mass market pocket books and also that there are almost no hardcover or oversize genre fiction books. Hardcover and oversize genre fiction books used to be popular among older readers because of the larger font size. However, with the popularity of eReaders, older readers don’t demand these books because they can adjust the font size on their eReaders; this leaves the genre fiction market for only pocket book buyers and readers as people want to get the story cheap, read it once, and then trade it in for more.

The Wee Book Inn locations also carry contemporary literature and non-fiction in the hardcover and oversize formats. People who read these genres tend to hold onto their books, and the hardcover and oversize books look nicer on home library bookshelves than pocket books. These sections tend to be most popular for men and women in their 20s and 30s, and the more popular non-fiction sections are science, history, cultural studies, philosophy, metaphysical, and self-help.

Store Layout and Displays

The front display wall has a section to display popular literature and non-fiction. Popular literary and contemporary fiction authors that you will usually see displayed include Diana Gabaldon, Terry Pratchett, and Neil Gaiman, and popular non-fiction authors include Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, and Noam Chompsky. The displays are often changed several times throughout the day to cater towards specific demographics. During the day, popular children’s books such as Shel Silverstein, as well as contemporary literature and anything translated, are displayed. However, in the evenings, especially at the Whyte Avenue location, which is open until midnight every night, the display books change to include Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, and Charles Bukowski. The Jasper Avenue location, in a more business-driven area of town, as opposed to the more arts-driven Whyte Avenue location, finds that cookbooks are popular and will usually display those during the day.

Most sections in Wee Book Inn have some sort of organization, whether it’s by genre, alphabetical, or both. However, some sections don’t have any organization at all, such as the sales section and boxes of comics, and this lack of organization reflects a specific type of reader. With the cheap price of sale books and comics, it’s a rewarding experience for customers to spend time digging through mounds of books or comics for what they consider to be a personal gem, at a rock bottom price. Similarly, there is also a pocket book spin rack near the front of the store. This mix of fiction and non-fiction usually includes authors such as Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and Dale Carnegie. The pocket book display rack is used to display popular books, but it also offers an opportunity for readers to browse, to slow down and spend some time with books that interest them. It is as much the ritual of spinning and browsing as it is the purchase of a new book that makes this activity meaningful to the reader. There is a social experience that is inseparable from the print and essential to the reading.

Knowing which books the Wee Book Inn chooses to display and why is important to better understand the specific connections fostered with communities of readers in Edmonton. The connections can seem rather general: out of thousands of books, it is the same authors and titles that end up getting displayed. But the more important aspect of the display window from the perspective of the Wee Book Inn is to create the immediate reflection that connects individual reader and Wee Book Inn. When people who have never been to the Wee Book Inn walk past the store, everything they need to know about the store is contained within the window display. There is a crafted aesthetic that is at once complete and ragged, with carefully arranged books and open boxes. If you see several authors and titles that you personally enjoy, the window becomes a door, and as you walk through that door you become a part of a reading community. Even if it’s a title that you already own, seeing that Chuck Palahniuk or Philip K. Dick book in the window conveys the message: “Oh, this store values the same literature that I do.” Corporate book stores, which focus to a greater degree on wide accessibility, lack this form of identity formation, which can be immediate and lasting, as the longevity of the Wee Book Inn might suggest.

The Staff

Last but not least, the staff is essential to the way in which each Wee Book Inn location functions as a locus of community formation. The staff members have a wall with their own shelves where they can recommend their favourite books, movies, and CDs. And the staff members themselves make up a unique blend of Edmonton culture, so no matter who you are, you’ll find someone on staff to relate to. Young and old, staff at the Wee Book Inn is comprised of writers, artists, musicians, teachers, avid readers, nerds, culture junkies, powerlifters, hipsters, and even anarcho-punk knitting enthusiasts. Often, customers become regulars, and then even friends, with staff members by finding a familiar book or movie on someone’s recommendation shelf and starting a conversation with them. Above all, perhaps, the staff members are the intersection between used books and reading. They decide what books get taken, what gets rejected, and what gets displayed. But more than this, they speak with the people who will read them everyday. This combination of knowledge and personal connection shines through on every shelf and in every nook and cranny at the Wee Book Inn.

Conclusion

People often describe the Wee Book Inn as a generational family store; when you look at the range of books that they stock, from children’s picture books to grandpa’s Westerns and everything in between, it’s not hard to see why. However, the Wee Book Inn provides more than just family reading: it reinforces and creates popular print culture within and around Edmonton. From the cats to the books to the staff, seemingly mundane elements of the store all come together to accomplish a complex and remarkable function: community. As a focal point of the local community, the Wee Book Inn provides a rather telling window into how people and institutions make reading an important part of their lives.

Last Updated: Jan 4, 2016