Goodbye, Greenwoods'

When I was young and impressionable in ways different from the ways I am way older and impressionable now, young and fascinated by valiant, stalwart knights in armour and resourceful, humorous heroes in tights, "under the greenwood tree" was Robin Hood with his Merry Men, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and all things good, holding out against the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, the stooge of the even more evil King John, and enemy of brave, good King Richard.

When I moved to Edmonton in 1986, and took my first walk along Whyte Avenue (or 82nd, as I had not yet learned not to call it) I first made my way into a Greenwoods' of a different kind, but similar quality, this lavish bookstore, crowded with customers. It was one of my first indications Edmonton was going to be an all right place to call home.

Many years, hours of browsing, and well-spent dollars later, I made what will probably prove my last trip to Greenwoods' as a customer last weekend. It was a sad excursion into a hollowing, echoing, emptying mausoleum. Greenwoods' is closing down on Saturday, Oct. 6, and as of last weekend, there were just not many books left on the shelves or customers left on the carpets.

Marty Chan, on Facebook, is trying to organize a last pilgrimage from among his Friends for Saturday, but ...

An editorial and a column in today's Edmonton Journal celebrate and eulogize the store. They also explain and maybe attempt to rationalize the economics of family businesses and of the book trade in particular that have helped bring down to this whimper of an ending this precious independent storehouse of surprises and opportunities, with its knowledgeable, literate and helpful staff who filled a "Staff Suggestions" section that could keep you satisfied month after month, and whose own brand of magic was that they could find titles for you based on the skimpiest of clues about author, title or even subject matter. Going into a warehouse of a chain bookstore to search its cold computerized database to see if I can locate a title on my own (and I would pretty much have to do it on my own) based on its e-logic is just not going to be the same--even if I do end up with the book, in the end.


 
Knowing why such places close does not make its closing any easier to accept. And the rationale does not fill me with confidence about the future of the one last notable independent bookstore in the city, Audrey's. Though I hope to be a customer there for quite a while longer.


All I see right now is that Edmonton has more than doubled its population in the years I have been here, and yet, with one closed door, it becomes a diminished place to call home.



Thanks, Greenwoods', for your own kind of magic over the years.