Pages praised for being "hyper-local" and "human scale"

Spacing magazine posted on its blog a nice "afterword" about the event this week that marked the passing of one of Toronto's (and Canada's) best independent book and magazine stores, Pages. The tribute is made more poignant by the facts about how important such an outlet has been to indy magazines like Spacing.

Pages was special to us because the store embodied everything we like about the city life: it had a great community vibe, staff possessed hyper-local sensibilities when promoting publications, and the fact that almost 100% of people shopping there arrived on foot. Pages acted as a human-scale counter-balance to the imposing CityTV just across the street.

Pages was also a huge pusher of Spacing: almost 40% of our Toronto newsstand sales came off of their shelves making us the store’s top-selling magazine. Other independent Canadian magazines often sold over 10% of their newsstands copies through Pages. But beyond just selling our magazine, Pages staff let us do a window display for the magazine’s second issue about pedestrian issues; the store exclusively sold our end-of-year holiday gift pack wrapped in a TTC map; and you could often find our subway buttons for sale on their front counter.

We graciously thank Pages’ staff for their friendliness and help since our launch. We’re gonna miss you.

Related posts:

• Pages Books & Magazines to close August 1
• Pages gets a breather; six months to work something out