McNally Robinson Booksellers is sold

I think that's actually the real valuable part of McNally Robinson is that there's something magical about it. It's greater than the sum of its parts.

—Chris Hall, new co-owner of McNally Robinson

A beloved Winnipeg institution has been sold. McNally Robinson Booksellers has new owners. The store, which has always been much more than a bookstore, has been a fixture on the Winnipeg scene since its founding in 1981.

Now Holly and Paul McNally are retiring and Chris Hall and his business partner Lori Baker have bought the business. Hall is senior inventory manager at the Winnipeg store and Baker is the store's comptroller.

"I've worked here for 16 years and it's just become part of my heart and soul," Hall said in conversation with Terry MacLeod on Information Radio. "I just couldn't imagine what else I would want to do."

Hall and Baker will acquire all aspects of the company, including the Winnipeg and Saskatoon stores, the two restaurants and the wholesale division, Skylight Books. The sale was initiated by the McNallys, who Hall says have decided it's time to slow down and shed the stress.

Hall says it is not an outright purchase. There will be a transition period of at least three years.

McNally's has survived a period of economic downturn and big changes in the book world. It has been named "Bookseller of the Year" in Canada several years in a row.

But Hall doesn't forsee any wholesale changes in the future. "It won't change in its core values and its cultural and community aspects," he say, "but it will have to evolve. The book industry is being challenged on a lot of fronts. I don't think reading is in decline, but the format of the book is in flux."

Hall stresses that people tell him that they regard McNally's as community and as culture. "This is where they like to go. I think that's actually the real valuable part of McNally Robinson is that there's something magical about it. It's greater than the sum of its parts."