Login / RegisterDoes Your Mother Know? magazine store closing in Kitsilano
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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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?
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
“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?
Does your mother know was a great successor to another defunct store - Octopus Books - located at 2250 W 4th, across from Whole Foods, back in the 80's, well before Duthie's held shop.
When you come back in a town after 30 years, the changes are more obvious than when you stay. Though I am not against change, it gets scary when you notice the lack of concern for the profound consequences to neighbourhoods these high rent prices and property taxes have upon the very fabric of the city.