Canadian Bookstore Given to Employees

Jim Munro, the owner of Munro’s Books in Victoria, British Columbia is giving his bookstore to four of his long term employees. At 84 years of age Munro has decided to retire and is taking a unique approach to the bookstore he has operated for 51 years.

He has decided to give the store for a token payment to store manager Jessica Walker, senior buyer Carol Mentha, comptroller Sarah Frye and operations manager Ian Cochran. Walker will be majority shareholder.

It is not a gift of a failing business. The bookstore continues to be successful. The gift includes the 30,000 book inventory, computers and furnishings. In a Toronto Star article Munro estimates the value of the gift at $1,000,000. He will retain ownership of the building and rent it to the new owners at a below market price.

It is one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores in its old bank building in downtown Victoria. No book lover can pass its doors without entry. The photos with this post from the store website show the exterior by night and the interior all the time.

I was there four years ago and was entranced. I wish I could go

there every week. The store is so inviting and the staff are very knowledgeable.

The Star story further sets out the reasons for Munro’s decision and the reaction of his professional advisers:

         Lawyers and
         accountants have
         told him he’s nuts.
         Crazy generous.

         Munro sees it differently. “Without them there, the business

         isn’t worth anything.

         They are like an extended family.

 Munro has three daughters with ex-wife Alice Munro, who 

 last year won the Nobel Prize in Literature. “We all totally

 agree that the store should go to the staff, that we hold the

 building and that we want the Munro name to continue,” he

 says.

 

In a story in the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper Walker said about the gift:

 

Walker said that she, Mentha, Cochran and Frye don’t take the compliment lightly. “The idea of being responsible for making sure the store continues and thrives is a real honour for us and we take it seriously. It’s something daunting, but exciting at the same time,” she said.

The store has survived the opening of a Chapters, one of the bookstores in the Canadian chain, which opened two blocks away a few years ago.

 

I cannot recall a comparable gifting of a bookstore. It is a remarkable action.

 

I love the store's unofficial motto - "tactile pleasures of the physical book".