Red River Book Shop

On a recent Saturday evening, just before 6:00 p.m. closing time, I betook myself and a bottle of rye to the Red River Book Shop, 346 Cumberland Avenue (two blocks north of Portage, and near Hargrave) to interview the proprietors, Dennis Boyko and Peter Scott. About six hours later we had finished not only my own contribution but nearly two to match from Mr. Boyko’s stock, and I had learned all I could and seen most of what there is to see of their friendly book business. I had been a customer of theirs for the last year or so, spending not a few Friday evenings or Saturday afternoons browsing at leisure among their large collection and buying sizeable packets of books. The shop is open during the daytime six days a week, Friday until 9:00 p.m.

The 50,000 titles in stock (books, magazines, comic books, records) are mainly second-hand (some being rare), with a fair number of new ones. New items are sold at 10% discount off the retail price, rare ones at highly competitive prices, and second-hand items at half-price or less. One may also trade in one’s own unwanted books at an approximate ratio of one of theirs for two of one’s own. In addition, the proprietors are always on the look-out for buying worthwhile collections or parts of collections. Any item not in their stock may be ordered and will be obtained (if it is obtainable) at reasonable cost. An efficient and fair-priced search and quotation service is available. Serious private collectors and libraries do and are invited to leave their want-lists with the store for conscientious service. The shop is also able to provide lists from its own inventory, printed on the premises on the store’s own Gestetner.

In business since 1974 (first at a location on Main Street near the City Hall, until rent went up several hundred percent), Red River has been located at the Cumberland address since December 1975. The first-floor premises are roomy and shelves and displays so arranged that items are easily accessible. There are not yet enough chairs and tables for the weary customer to do his or her browsing in total comfort, but the addition of more such furniture is one of Messrs. Scott and Boyko’s priorities. The large, clean, and well-lighted basement storage area is probably also open to customers, by prior request or at slack times during regular business hours. The atmosphere of the store is a most congenial one. Customers requiring personal service are given it in as much friendly detail as is needed, and those who wish to muck about endlessly on their own — as I do — are made to feel welcome. When it comes time to pay for one’s purchase(s), I have found that it is not uncommon to find oneself undercharged. There seems to be a tacit policy or practice of rounding off prices at somewhat below what is marked on the book. It’s a kind of patronage of the patron I don’t grumble at.

Myself I usually head for the general fiction collection, then visit in turn the Classics, Literature, Poetry, the other humanities sections, Canadiana, behavioural sciences — rarely the purer ones — and, of course, erotica. Other customers I have talked with tell me that aficionados of the Western, Mystery, Romance, Gothic, and Science Fiction will find the sections of them well-worth a visit. Especially highly spoken of by a collector I know are the Science Fiction and the Comics, the latter of which Red River has 20,000 titles or so, given a few duplications. According to him, these holdings are on the regular itinerary of buyers who buy-around for special or bargain items, because of the large and good selection and the very fair prices. Mr. Boyko and Mr. Shott profess no great personal expertise in these genres, but they are studying them. About comics they feel that the market is rather new and perhaps artificial, and are much concerned about not wanting to ‘rip the kids off.’ They would rather under-price an item through ignorance than keep it off the shelves until going prices, the latest going prices, can be located in the professional literature.

The ordinary periodicals section, which is fairly small, seems rather pedestrian to me. The phonograph records I haven’t examined as thoroughly as I shall do on my next visit, but the approximate eight hundred of them look well worth closer examination. One area of special interest to me (and to quite a number of Winnipeg readers) is ‘small’ magazines; of them Red River, like most Winnipeg stores, has very few. The proprietors admit to not knowing much about them, but express a definite willingness to stock those for which there is a regular demand. Red River relies for its development on the explicit wishes of its customers; thus, if enough people ask for specific ‘small’ magazines, Winnipeg could at last have a store that supplies them to a significant extent. Like all good book dealers, Mr. Shott and Mr. Boyko make selling as much a way of life and field of continuing study and delight, as it is a business. It is the atmosphere created by such practice that makes their store so pleasant to visit, regularly, or if you find yourself with a few hours to spare between planes, plays, or whatever.

S.G. Buri is a medical librarian. He is also a poet and an associate editor of the Canadian Poetry Quarterly CVII, and the publisher of a soon-to-be-released literary magazine, Violetta.