After 36 years memorable years on Barrington Street, United Bookstore‘s (1669 Barrington Street) final chapter is upon us. The convenience store and source for loads of book and DVDs will be closing its doors in the next two or three weeks.
Dave McConnell, who’s been with United for the last 20 years, says the perfect storm of Barrington Street’s construction and the book industry’s woes helped time the store’s departure.”It’s been great. It was a wonderful thing. It was a happening place, lots of neat people working here over the years,” says McConnell. “This was the working class book store, for all the regular readers.”
For now, we’d recommend growing your book collection while you can—pick up some summer beach reads—all remaining stock will be half-off until United closes.
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2014.
When I first came to Halifax in the fall of 1979, the downtown was a paradise of bookstores, new and second-hand. United was always a place to find unexpected prizes. I found my copy of Christian de la Maziere’s “Ashes of Honour” there. Now, just a wistful memory of a time that’s passed.
Thanks for being a part of my youth, United.
This makes me sad. I too, found a few gems of my collection there. Best of luck to the United Bookstore folks.
The passing scene. Sad to see another store close. Barrington St. keeps losing character.
I blame starfish properties. All they do is hoard property downtown and kick out businesses in hopes of making a grand shopping center. By the time they do that, downtown will be a crime ridden area that nobody will want to go to. Why bother trying to find a parking spot (or paying a fortune for one) just to select from a few stores that are about to get kicked out and then possibly getting mugged