Wee Book Inn’s Words and Cats Celebrate Edmonton’s Half a Century

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It is a bastion in the Edmonton book scene, a constant in a world of change. It has seen the advent of the digital age and e-readers, and the demise of countless other used bookstores. Its Whyte Avenue location is an institution for Old Strathcona shoppers and a shining beacon for bargain hunters, treasure hunters, and bibliophiles. This year marks an important milestone.

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The Wee Book Inn is celebrating its 50th anniversary of serving Edmonton’s literary community by providing a place where books, rather than just information on paper, are treasured as articles with their own stories. It all started with a man who took a risk in a tiny building.

Darwin Luxford opened the first Wee Book Inn location on Whyte Avenue in 1971, settling in a building not much more than six feet wide. The narrow structure would inspire the “Wee” at Wee Book Inn.

A cultural cornerstone

“It was pretty obvious to him that it was a good location, culturally speaking,” says Carey Luxford, one of Darwin’s sons and current co-owner of Wee Book Inn.

Foot traffic has always been important to the store, and Darwin worked long hours, often from 9 am to midnight when it first opened. The used book market was the largest half a century ago, but Darwin found a way to succeed and stay while locals came and went.

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“I think it all came down to my father’s ability to connect (with customers) and tell stories,” says Ryan Luxford, Darwin’s other son and co-owner of the store. “The first day he made something like $ 9 or $ 18. The next day, people lined the street.”

Wee Book Inn wouldn’t be Darwin’s only foray into the retail world. He opened two comic book stores, Amazing Stories on Jasper Avenue and Comic Castle on Whyte Avenue, and a pawn shop called Whyte Gold. Each of them had their day while Wee Book Inn persisted.

Darwin took a step back in the mid-1980s and his wife, Leola, took over the Wee Book operations. According to Carey, revenue peaked in the period in which she was in charge, a strong businesswoman who drove expansion to seven locations in the province and even a brief operation in Vancouver. Today, only the Whyte Avenue and Jasper Avenue locations have survived.

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With Leola in charge, Darwin found time to pursue other interests. He opened a carpentry shop and worked with Ryan and Leola’s father to build all of the wooden shelving at the Whyte Avenue location. He loved working on old cars, Jaguars to be specific, and he had one parked in the store garage for years. But he was always passionate about the bookstore.

“He was always busy doing something,” says Carey, but “he was always very fond of his time in the stores.”

Carey took over Wee Book Inn when Leola died in 2004. She worked quickly to learn everything she could from her mother, who had a lot of information that she never wrote down. Darwin died a decade later.

The store’s continued success is a testament to its popularity and status as an anchor in the Old Strathcona community. Even after 50 years, multiple economic booms and busts, and COVID-19, Wee Book Inn continues to do impressive business.

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“The volume that we see is quite huge,” says Carey. “Unless you really work there, it would be difficult to understand how many books are brought in every day.”

Treasure hunting

Their stock of books is based on what people bring them, and the staff talk about the thrill of treasure hunting.

“You open a box of books that someone has left and you never know what you’ll find,” says Heather Westhaver, Whyte Avenue location manager. “Maybe there is a 1984 Canadian First Edition by George Orwell. Or maybe it’s just a pile of garbage. Maybe it’s both. “

Westhaver started out as a customer, taking trips to the bookstore while visiting from Jasper. Now she is the manager at the original location.

At the beginning of the pandemic, when Wee Book Inn’s doors were closed to the public, Westhaver acted as a personal shopper. Clients would make requests, sometimes extremely long and detailed descriptions, of what they would like to read. Without an inventory system, Westhaver had to rely on his memory of what was in store to try and find a matching title.

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“One of the things I thought when I started working here, ‘I’ll be the one to take inventory of this,'” says Westhaver. “Books come and go so fast that there is no way to attempt such a thing. It would be silly. “

Chris Lariviere is another client-turned-personal; He is now the inventory manager for Wee Book Inn. He sets the baseline for the staff looking at the products coming through the door to try to determine what will be popular on the shelves. With 20 years of experience in the store, he has a knack for what you are looking for.

“A great author for us is Phillip K Dick. Of course, every once in a while they make a movie out of one of their novels and that will affect popularity, ”says Lariviere. “Sometimes Phillip K. Dick’s books are absolutely rare. Then you will suddenly flood yourself and that cycle will repeat. “

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Now, with half a century of success, what does the future hold?

Carey wouldn’t rule out future locations and weighs the opportunities as they present themselves, but the focus, for now, is on his two current locations and their longevity.

“We have a really strong team of people,” says Carey. “We have solid good management and the clients seem to be quite loyal. I’m quite optimistic about those two places. “

For the love of cats

And the only beloved quirk that will remain are the cats that tiptoe across the shelves and crawl into the hearts of staff and customers.

There is a tradition at Wee Book Inn to have a Himalayan cat in every store, a breed chosen for its docile nature and less prone to venturing outdoors. Cats are often named after former Montreal Canadiens players, Fleur being the furry resident of Whyte Avenue.

Darwin brought the idea to Wee Book Inn from a store he had previously worked at.

“My dad loved cats,” says Carey. “From the beginning, we had a cat in the first location.”

How many cats have there been at Wee Book Inn over the years? Carey can only guess.

“It’s an absurd number,” he laughs. “In the dozens, sure.”

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