University of Alberta francophone bookstore closing its doors

President of l’Association des Universitaires de la Faculté Saint-Jean David Jennings will miss perusing the shelves of the Librairie le Carrefour.

While Jennings worked as a logistics coordinator for Regroupement artistique francophone de l’Alberta at La Cité francophone last summer, he visited Librairie le Carrefour, a French bookstore located in La Cité, every day, browsing its collection of comics, fiction and non-fiction novels and toys.

La Cité francophone, located in Bonnie Doon, is a “hub” for the francophone community in Alberta, housing offices, businesses and various community services for French-speaking Albertans. Although students frequent the bookstore at the beginning of each semester, Jennings said some of his fondest memories include seeing seniors and children visiting the public French-language bookstore.

The French-language bookstore will close its doors to the public at the end of June 2015 due to continuous financial losses. The services will take on a new form, as the university administration will replace the physical bookstore with a comprehensive online bookstore.

“Now that it’s closing down, it’s hard for the francophone community and the Campus Saint-Jean community,” Jennings said.

U of A Vice-Provost (Learning Services) and Chief Librarian Gerald Beasley said the Librairie le Carrefour has been losing money every year since it opened in 2008. This led to consultations with the community on the future of Librairie le Carrefour before the end of its lease in July 2015.

“The thought process was to ask what we should be doing, and look at what the bookstore has been doing, in time for the lease renewal,” Beasley said. “We really can’t afford to renew the lease and continue to lose the money.”

Consultative meetings recommended that the most sustainable and practical solution would be to transfer the bookstore into an e-commerce website, he said.

Jennings said Association des Universitaires de la Faculté Saint-Jean was not involved in those consultations.

“It’s definitely something we would of appreciated,” Jennings said of consultation regarding Librairie le Carrefour. “We recognize that there was no money being made … but there could have been alternate solutions and there could have been cooperative brain-storming and unfortunately we missed out on that opportunity.”

Beasley said the closure of Librairie le Carrefour presents students with advantages, including increased accessibility to order and purchase their materials online. He added that pop-up bookstores will be seen at CSJ throughout the year — especially at the beginning of semesters to allow students to buy course materials.

“Pop-ups will make it more convenient for students on campus,” he said. “I think that because it’s over the road, students may not find it obvious to come over and do their shopping.”

However, Beasley recognized the disadvantages for students who prefer a close-to-campus bookstore they can browse before they decide to make a purchase.

“We regret that,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. We regret that we can’t offer that, but we were paying substantial rent for that space.”

In an effort to focus on satisfying students’ main course-material needs, the permanent Librairie le Carrefour staff will be transferred to the North Campus bookstore in the Students’ Union Building. There, they will serve in the French materials section of the bookstore, and help in servicing the francophone portion of the SUB bookstore website, which is currently under development.

The staff will also be involved in mailing materials to francophone communities across Western Canada. Librairie le Carrefour is one of the only French-language book services in Western Canada.

Moving over to a virtual bookstore would give CSJ students easier online access, while allowing smoother service to people in Vancouver, Victoria and Calgary, Beasley said.
Beasley said French materials don’t sell as well as English. This problem often leads to high competition between the independent bookstores, such as Librairie le Carrefour, and larger Quebecois bookstores — which have more aggressive marketing strategies, he said.

“I think that it is a difficult decision, but I think it’s the best solution,” he said. “It’s difficult to close a physical bookstore but in this case the best solution is to have other ways of getting the same materials through pop-up locations and online.”

Jennings said some Campus Saint-Jean students don’t speak English well, which may lead to confusion in terms of what textbooks to purchase, and if they should be purchased in English or French. Another one of Jennings’ concerns is inconvenience, since many first-year Campus Saint-Jean students don’t take classes on North Campus.

Jennings is currently in talks to clear some of that confusion in Campus Saint-Jean student orientation this year. He also hopes to work with the SU to look for ways to mitigate the loss of Librairie le Carrefour, and the loss of Campus Saint-Jean’s direct connection to the rest of the francophone community.

“It was a great way to connect the francophone student population with the rest of the francophone community, “Jennings said.
“Unfortunately, that’s gone now.”

Correction (Feb. 6, 2014): 

The article’s original title incorrectly referred to Librairie le Carrefour as Campus Saint-Jean’s French-language library. It is French bookstore located in La Cité.