Riley Brandt

Just what the city needs — another Sport Chek; this one, in downtown Calgary

For the past four years, McNally Robinson won Fast Forward’s Best of Calgary readers poll for best bookstore in town. This year’s different, of course. McNally Robinson’s gone, and the beautiful three-storey Stephen Avenue space that once housed a literary paradise now sits empty. The storefront’s dark green trim has been repainted blue. Two posters in the window say: “SPORT CHEK COMING SOON.”

Almost a year has passed since McNally left town, and the loss is still a bitter one for book-buyers and writers alike. “It wasn’t handled very well,” says Simone Lee, owner of Pages, the city’s last remaining inner-city bookstore of any size. “Unfortunately, the insinuation from their press release was that Calgary couldn’t support a large literary bookstore, which really wasn’t the case.”

Traditionally, Fast Forward had two bookstore categories in our poll: one for new books and one for used books. This year we had to roll them into one category because there aren’t enough bookstores left. What could we list as options for new books? A couple local stores and a bunch of Chapters and Indigo locations? We couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.

It was a moment of sad realization: there aren’t enough bookstores left in town to sustain two categories. Used bookstores have been quickly disappearing, too. Kensington, once an inviting hotspot for bibliophiles, is now completely bereft of used bookstores, having lost five of them over the span of 18 months, according to Lee.

Which brings us back to McNally and that frustrating emptiness on Stephen Avenue. Passersby might be tempted to ask: What kind of city trades a beautiful downtown bookstore for golf clubs and jock straps?

But that’s not what happened. In reality, McNally Robinson made a heap of cash by selling their space in the Clarence Block. They bought it for $5 million in 2004 and last year sold it for more than $8 million. In other words, they made hordes of money while opening new stores in Winnipeg and Toronto. Yet the company still tried to make it look like Calgary was inhospitable to its literary venture.

“Current real estate prices in downtown Calgary make it difficult to sustain a bookstore,” owner Paul McNally said at the time. His statement made absolutely no sense, since McNally owned its building. Co-owner Tory McNally also blamed Calgary’s dead downtown. “When Calgarians finish work, they go home,” she told the Calgary Sun. “We fought against it for six years but if they want to go home I can't stop them.” The company, of course, made no effort to relocate outside downtown.

Looking at those Sport Chek signs in the window, it’s hard not to feel angry about McNally’s clumsy departure. Not because the store left town — that’s the owners’ right — but because its owners made it sound like the economic and literary climate further east was more welcoming, that Calgary was somehow inadequate. “A lot of people in the community were disappointed that that was the story that got out there,” says Lee. “It wasn’t really fair to their customers and their supporters and the authors and the publishers.”

John Manzo, a U of C sociology prof who ripped into the company on his blog after the closure announcement, wishes the company would have plainly stated its motivations instead of blaming Calgary. “When this kind of thing happens in Calgary, it’s always, ‘We’re a bunch of rednecks,’” says Manzo, a former McNally customer. “It’s so tiresome.” It’s also “incredibly insulting,” he adds.

In fact, Calgary has a thriving literary community — not just people who write, but also people who read. Business is humming at Pages. “We’re busier than ever,” says Lee.

And a block away from the old McNally site, boutique press Freehand Books has wowed the literary world with its success since it launched in 2007. “We’ve received just a phenomenal amount of support from the community here,” says Freehand managing editor Sarah Ivany.

So screw you, McNally Robinson! Your clumsy exit still hurts like a relationship gone sour. People in our city loved you. We miss you. And we loathe you for how you ditched us. I tried to call you for this story… but you wouldn’t even return my calls. That stings.

But what’s done is done. Calgary has eight Sport Cheks. Soon we’ll have a ninth.