A New Beginning
For almost 8 years now, you've known Janus Books as your local brick-and-mortar purveyor of fine second-hand books. In those eight years, we've never been closed for more than 2 days in a row. Until now.
As I'm sure you're all aware, we have been forced to temporarily close the store due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been closed now since March 17th. We will remain closed until it is safe to re-open. Our primary concern is for the health and safety of our customers, employees and the wider community.
Life, however, continues. We have rent, bills, and other expenses. We are concerned about the long term viability of the business. So we have been working harder than ever.
Many of you have told us that you miss the store. And what better time to catch up on your reading? As someone told us on Instagram, "we need your store more than ever".
Today we are announcing a new way of shopping at Janus Books: an online storefront with a selection of our inventory available immediately for purchase.
We are currently offering FREE DELIVERY in Guelph. Orders placed before 4 p.m. will be delivered the same day. Orders placed after 4 p.m. will be delivered the next day.
I know many of our customers live outside of Guelph. Please be patient while we scale up our delivery service: we are hoping to expand our delivery options in the future. We are not offering pick-up at this time.
We will be taking numerous precautions to ensure both your safety and ours during delivery:
- we will wear masks when we pack and deliver the orders, even though none of us are symptomatic
- we will wash our hands frequently
- all deliveries will be wrapped in compostable bags
- books will be sanitized to the best of our ability
- deliveries will be left on porches and doorsteps to ensure minimal contact
- we will only take payment online – sorry, no C.O.D.
Now, on to the books themselves! We've uploaded a portion of our inventory, chosen at random. You will find our current selection under the Catalogue link. We will be adding new books everyday, but it takes time. Please do check back frequently to see what's new!
This is just the beginning. We have many improvements we'd like to make, including better book descriptions, improved search and filtering capabilities, better category organization, and much more. We'll be rolling out these improvements over the next weeks and months.
In the meantime, please explore the new site! If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please comment below or email us at online@janusbooks.ca and we'll get in touch!
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who made this possible:
- Our wonderful staff, Will and Andrew, who have faced this new challenge with resilience and determination
- My incredible mother, Brenda, whose advice and support has been invaluable, now and always. Happy Birthday Mom!
- Shopify, for providing the tools for us to get online quickly
- BookNet Canada, an incredible non-profit organization, that provides us with pictures and detailed book information for the catalogue
- The Downtown Guelph Business Association for their continued support of us and all of the other wonderful downtown businesses
- Melissa and Mike and the rest of the team at Grandview Property Management that provide our retail space on Paisley Street
- Our accountant Colleen, who continues to provide us clear-headed guidance in these uncertain times
- And all of our wonderful customers who continue to offer encouragement and support via Instagram, Facebook, email, etc. We are looking forward to seeing you all back in the store when we are able to re-open!
We're looking forward to many more years of serving you. Stay healthy!
Kieran Dunn
Owner, Janus Books
Ready to see the books? Check out our Catalogue!