This week I virtually interviewed Hilary Atleo, one of the owners of Iron Dog Books – located on 2671 E Hastings Street in Vancouver, BC! Iron Dog Books began as Vancouver’s “first modern-day mobile bookstore” in 2016, and opened up a store space in late 2019, right before COVID-19 sent British Columbia into lockdown. Iron Dog Books stands out as an Indigenous-owned independent bookstore, and as explained on their website Hilary and Cliff Atleo felt that “More often than not we struggled to source books we needed, or to convince the folks around us that Indigenous stories were important to the literary canon. Our experiences taught us that if we wanted our dream bookstore to exist, we would have to build it ourselves.” And so they did – with Iron Dog Books! Here is my virtual interview with Hilary.
Q: On the Iron Dog Books site, you mention opening your store on December 6th 2019, just a mere three months prior to the pandemic hitting Vancouver! How do you feel this impacted your opening of Iron Dog and the way you managed to persist as an independent store?
A: “The pandemic has simultaneously been a deeply challenging time for small business and a platform on which our fledgling store found significant customer loyalty and success. In many ways the pandemic reinforced our founding principles of great customer service, empathy for our patrons and being a place for locals to find the things they need. Our business has always been focused on our community first and that principle meant that when folks needed books and entertainment during the worst of the restrictions we were there to help them. I sometimes think that we were always going to get where we are, but the pandemic hurried us there faster.”
Q:You went about the opening of Iron Dog in a very unique way, starting with the mobile truck in 2017- I know you touch on this in your ‘Our Story’ section, but do you mind discussing how this set you up for the opening of the Iron Dog Books store and what it taught you about book selling?
A: Operating the truck is the most challenging business I have ever been a part of. There is a lot of mythology about the freedom and ease with which one can operate a mobile business but the reality is much harder. There is no part of operating a business that is easier in a truck, and I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who manage to run food operations out of these incredibly tiny and cramped quarters. The days are long, the fees are high and you are at the mercy of the weather every single time you book a date. Operating the truck taught me how to be realistic about opportunities, how to negotiate, how to walk away from a bad deal, how to appreciate every single customer, and how to be as efficient as possible – with space, with money, with time, with essentially everything. All of these things are make or break skills in any business and they are all key aspects of our success in a conventional brick and mortar store
Q: How did you come up with the name “Iron Dog Books”?
A: We named it after our dog, Buckley, who I always called “The Cast Iron Dog”. He was sturdy and moved with me 10 times in ten years, interprovincially and internationally. There was nothing else called Iron Dog anywhere, and I thought it invoked a quiet sense of strength and endurance
Q: What are you currently reading/ recently read that you enjoyed?
A: I’ve been having trouble settling into reading for the last two years, basically since we took on the lease for the new shop, but since February I’ve been reading two or three books a week. I think it’s because I decided to read for fun only. For a long time I did most of my reading for work, which can be a slog when I am just trying new titles to see if they will fit in my store. Fun reading for me means genre reading, mystery, sci fi, some romance. I’ve found four new mystery authors I love – Jane Pek, S A Cosby, Nekesa Afia, Eva Jurczyk. For science fiction I am mostly reading things from the last few years that I missed, I just finished Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and I’ve been picking up Becky Chambers books. I read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus on the recommendation of another bookseller friend. It was great and I know exactly the person to recommend it to.
Q: What advice would you give those who want to go into book-selling or the publishing/book industry?
A: Loving books is not enough. This job is a job in all ways – it has good parts and bad parts and it mostly relies on the skills you would use at any job; reliability, accountability, problem-solving. If you can do all that and you also love books then this is the best job in the world.
Q: What is your favourite Iron Dog Books memory?
A: Bringing my daughter to work with me when we first opened the brick and mortar store. We started the business in 2017, just before she turned 3. She used to go to all my meetings with me when we first started, because we have never had access to daycare. My son was in kindergarten when we started the truck and a lot of times it was just my 3 year old and I managing inventory, meeting with contractors, booking events. She was 5 and in kindergarten when we started the storefront but she would still sometimes ask to go to work with me.
Thank you so much Hilary! Check out the Iron Dog Books’ Website and Instagram!
