Does Your Mother Know? magazine store closing in Kitsilano

by Stephen Hui on June 18th, 2012 at 1:44 PM

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Kent McKenzie isn’t the only one who’s sad to see his Vancouver magazine store go.

The 50-year-old co-owner of Does Your Mother Know? (2139 West 4th Avenue) has posted a sign on the door informing customers that his Kitsilano shop will be shutting down on Sunday (June 24) after 13 years in business.

“There’s actually people welling up with tears as they’re leaving,” McKenzie told the Straight by phone. “It’s really too bad.”

According to McKenzie, declining sales and the cost of rent are prompting the closure of the business. He noted clientele is “totally different” today than it was when the store opened.

“The only people buying magazines are in their 40s and 50s,” McKenzie said. “[Although] if it’s young and hip, the magazine itself, the young and hip are buying them. And there’s niche titles too.”

Asked about the origins of the store’s name, McKenzie replied with a laugh, “Oh, it was a long time ago.”

Back then, McKenzie recalled, city hall had rejected his proposed names for the store. Then he received a bill from a shop in San Francisco with the name Does Your Mother Know. He submitted that name and it went through.

McKenzie said he is “apprehensive” about closing up shop. His next order of business will be to look for a job.

“It’s going to be a lot easier for me—no employees, no keys,” he quipped, before letting out a sigh.

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Comments

15 Comments

Tyler

Jun 18, 2012 at 2:04pm

The greed of commercial property owners is destroying our communities and local independant businesses. One by one we are watching locally owned small businesses shutting down due to astronomical rent increases. Property owners feel entitled to be wealthy, jacking up the rents so the only stores who can afford it are the Gaps and Jacobs of the world.

Does anybody know?

Jun 18, 2012 at 2:16pm

Never heard of it.

cranky mom

Jun 18, 2012 at 2:58pm

I have no idea who can afford retail rents anymore. It is making it impossible for a small business to survive. Endless banks fees, unrealistic rents, city of Vancouver red tape and additional licensing fees, customers expecting dollar store pricing, yet wanting locally made goods. All of it adds up to the end of the entrepreneur, and all those amazing little stores that give the city character.

Trank

Jun 18, 2012 at 4:00pm

Sad, Apple and free magazine download sites are slowly killing magazine and book stores. Landlords are also guilty. The - everything high-end concept - is killing grassroots business in this town. How can small business compete? Even Starbucks can't keep up.

PR

Jun 18, 2012 at 4:19pm

Agree with the comments here regarding local businesses. I can't help but wonder where this is all going when even on and around Robson Street places like HMV, Bread Garden, White Spot, the Levi's store, and Starbuck's, are papering their windows - never mind the mom and pop shops, what few that remain. And there are a lot more that look ready to pack it in.

Is the plan to have a bunch of empty stores? Is this all due to some short-sighted and over-estimated post Olympic boom that hasn't happened? Or will these all be condo towers? Donnelly Group fake pubs? Yoga pants factories? What's the plan here?

election

Jun 18, 2012 at 4:27pm

nothing survives in Vancouver anymore, a terrible place to do business,....maybe it's too world-class for business...

greedy landlords have killed Vancouver....and people just don't spend like they did 13 years ago

i don't think Christy Clark will be seeking a photo-op for this

David Grant

Jun 18, 2012 at 9:32pm

I am a little confused by this paragraph:
“The only people buying magazines are in their 40s and
50s,” McKenzie said. “If it’s young and hip, the magazine itself, the young and hip are buying them. And there’s niche titles too.”
I get the first statement but then the second "If it's...The young and hip are probably buying them." Doesn't this mean they are younger than 40 and 50 ?
Curious on magazine readership #'s according to the ads in the mags. I read the #'s are up?
Anybody?

re:David Grant

Jun 19, 2012 at 1:24am

It's true, print magazines are selling more than ever. I've purchased the occasional item from this shop, but subscription prices are just so much more economical than buying individual mags.