In 1983, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (TWB) was gutted by a fire. The fire was an anti-abortion hate crime targeted at the illegal abortion clinic just above the store, but it was the bookstore that faced over $60,000 of damages and was forced to relocate. Unfortunately for the TWB, that fire was just the beginning. Since then, it has cycled through many owners (some negligent), faced bankruptcy more than once, and closed temporarily. Still, since its establishment in 1973, the store hasn’t strayed from its roots: empowerment and equality for women.
The TWB’s years of commitment to that mantra has created a dedicated following, and independent bookstores need all the support they can muster to survive in today’s changing book market. It’s difficult for any small independent business to stay afloat, and bookstores in particular face a dramatic change: the rise of e-readers and online bookstores places pressure on shops to go online in order to compete with the seemingly boundless stock of chains like Chapters/Indigo. Small bookstores like the TWB simply can’t compete in terms of stock size or diversity. Because of that, they have relied on the fact that they’re much more than a bookstore to stay in business.
Victoria Moreno is the newest TWB owner, and has a lot of work ahead of her to keep the bookstore running. She’s there seven days a week, and says the store now feels like a second home. She’s hustling up and downstairs, answering questions and picking up the phone. Two women are sitting in the cafe at the back of the store, chatting over drinks and laptops, and Moreno asks if they need anything else before she wipes down the bar counter and we sit down for our interview. The work going into the store has been mostly by herself and volunteers, and she’s been doing everything she can to cut costs. “This used to be a bench,” she says with a smile as she knocks on the countertop. “Everything [in the cafe] was recycled, except the equipment.”
The store has undergone many changes since Moreno took over: there is free wi-fi in the store for the new cafe and renovated patio, the cash register was relocated, and the stock is considerably smaller. But Moreno is excited about the future, hoping to make the store into a cultural hub for arts of all kinds. “I need to breathe life into the bookstore,” she said.
The structure of the store changed from non-profit to profit when it reopened, and although some people have questioned the switch, it was necessary to keep the business going. “In taking over the bookstore, I also took over its liabilities,” said Moreno. In particular, large amounts of money owed to suppliers. But in the end, the TWB energy prevails: “I get that sense of hesitancy when people come in – by the time they leave, I don’t sense that anymore.”
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