I love reading, and as a starving university-college student / artist, I don’t have a lot of money to spend on books, so I’m always looking for ways to save a buck or two when shopping for books in the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada area. So, here are some of the top stores I visit regularly in my ongoing hunt for a good cheap book to read:
1. Chapters: Chapters is a Canadian owned and operated mega-bookstore that I shop often, mainly for it’s large selection and friendly staff. If you can name it, you can probably find it at Chapters. They also have many bargain books, these are a series of books that have been set at a publisher’s clearance price and are usually available for less than$10 or even$5 Canadian. Chapters also has a membership rewards program for frequent purchasers. Every time I make a purchase, I show my Chapter 1 Club card and I can get 10% off most in-store purchases. This reward program also gives you one point for each dollar you spend in store, and when you’ve spent$100, Chapters will send you a$5 coupon in the mail that you can use as a discount towards any in-store purchase. A great way to save a buck or two!( https://chapters.ca/)
2. Granville Book Company: A great, much smaller, independent store in comparison to Chapters, that I love to shop at because of it’s smaller, friendly and relaxed atmosphere. They are also open late most nights which allows me to go in and freely browse around without being hassled or having to worry about crowds. They don’t have many discounts however, nor do they have any kind of membership rewards programs, but that is ok, as they have a quirky selection of some interesting books I don’t usually see elsewhere, so I always know I’ll end up with something whenever I leave their store.( https://granvillebooks.com/)
3. Bizz Books: This is a wonderful store that features only Entertainment books: namely, film books! It’s a great store for the film buffs in all of us, and serves as the official store for books used in courses at the Vancouver Film School. Like The Granville Book Company, however, this isn’t a store you go to for discounts, rather you go to it for finding very specific titles on a very specific and wide-ranging subject: entertainment and film studies. I’ve found a lot of books here, and plan to go back again soon.( https://multimedia.edu/books/)
4. The Book Warehouse: This is the ultimate discount bookseller. Many of their books are very inexpensive, and all brand new. Their advertising says their everyday savings are made simple, and this is very true. Firstly, you get 20% off all best sellers and current releases; secondly they have’Irresistibly Priced’ books which include remainders, reprints and special imports; and thirdly, they have’Bargain Prices’ which are savings of up to 50% and more on publisher’s assortments and some other hurt or damaged books.( The Book Warehouse has six Locations to Serve You in downtown Vancouver: Call 604-872-5711 For the location nearest you!)
5. Black Bond Books: If’The Book Warehouse’ is the discount bookseller in the downtown Vancouver area, then it would be fine to argue that’Black Bond Books’ has set up an identical discount bookselling service south of the Fraser River, covering the suburbs of the Lowermainland and Vancouver, British Columbia area. This chain has more than 10 locations across this area, and all offer the same unbeatable prices on new books. They also have a simple discount card program, a simple business-card like frequent buyers card, where if you buy 10 books at$3.95 each or more, you can receive a$5.00 credit off the 11th purchase. So, whenever I’m in the area with the time to spare, and I know there is a’Black Bond Books’ nearby, you can bet I’ll stop by.( https://blackbondbooks.com/)
6. The Kwantlen University College Bookstore: With four locations on each Kwantlen Campus, they often have discount deals on many fiction books, for under$5 or bundled up for cheap prices. For these discount books, the store offers a’FBI(Friendly Books Incentive) Card.’ How this program works is as they stamp your card for your first five books purchased, you can recieve 10% off all of these titles you buy; then, for the next five books purchased, you can receive 20% off; THEN, after the purchase of 10 books, you will receive a 25% discount off all future book purchases with this card. It’s a great deal for buying already very reasonably priced books. The staff is also very friendly as well at all the campuses.( https://plaza.kwantlen.bc.ca/sites/bookstore.nsf)
7. Miscellaneous Places for Great Deals: I also visit regularly any’Costco Wholesale’ location, for they always have great discounts on the latest books, music and DVDs available( https://costco.com/). Also, I occaisonally visit any’Save-On Foods’ books department( https://sof.com/believeit/home.htm), or any’Real Canadian Superstore’ books department( https://preschoicefinancial.com/storeloc/bcstores.htm) - both of these stores offer great discounts on the latest books available. And of course, it never hurts to check out any local used bookseller, although I personally prefer to buy new books as they are cleaner and don’t have that musty old books smell which I am allergic too, occasionally I’ll find a decent book for a good price in some smaller, used and second-hand book stores.
So, these are the main stores I visit regularly for discounts on great books. Although I will admit that I do get myself into trouble sometimes - buying too many books, more than I can read at one time, so recently I made a vow: to finish reading what I have in my collection before buying any new titles. But, hey, when it comes to a great deal, sometimes that’s hard to do!
So the next time you’re in the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada area - check out these stores. You wont’ regret it - Happy reading everyone!