Bookstore Changes
November 13 2026,
Books have been a huge part of the Sentry Box community over the years. It used to be about 30% of our product. We have hosted book signings, writer’s workshops, writer’s groups, and I have made many friends in the store and at many local conventions ever since the first one I took part in back in 1981. I personally love Science Fiction and Fantasy books and still read a minimum of 30 minutes every day. One of the reasons I started selling them in my second location was simply to get cheap books for myself... It worked as I now have about 4000 on my own shelves. We have many old books as I never wanted to strip the covers and send them back for credit. It always frustrated me when a chain store would have book five of a series but not the first four so I set a policy in place of always keeping items in stock as long as I could for that avid reader looking to fill in their collection.
Through the rise of the digital age we all have seen the decline in books. It has now reached the point that there are very few new SF&F novels being released and those that are released, tend to be only in the Trade format (the large paperback editions) or in hardcover. Both of these styles are not conducive to mass market sales due to the higher cost. It is why there are very few bookstores left for those of us who love reading.
The cold, hard facts are that we have about 7000 different titles in stock, and half of them have not sold in the last three years. We have fought the good fight and tried to keep things going for those who love to browse, we can no longer justify using the large amount of space they take up for $3-4000 in sales each month. We have had to make the hard decision to re-purpose that space for more games and stop carrying as much as we have had for the last four decades. It should have been done even before Covid but I hoped that it would turn around or at least pay for its share of the costs of operating the store.
We will still be carrying a curated selection of books that are related to the games we sell and will of course be happy to special order anything you wish, but over the next 5-6 months, we will not be reordering any mass market paperbacks.
There will be some reorganizing going on but later this month, we will be having a big sale on the books that we won’t be carrying any longer. This may be your last chance to ever get some of the titles you see on the shelves.
As you can guess, this was not an easy decision for me to make and I will miss having the ability to simply wander the shelves myself to find a new author or book. - Gord
New Siding
October 31 2026
We sadly had to say goodbye to our black and orange mural on the north side of the building to make way for some much needed new siding. We will put new artwork on the building in the coming years, but for now check out the shiny new silver ripples that match our vestibule. It was a wild experience taking down the old siding and peeling back the layers seeing the old colours, and the wood that hadn't seen the light of day for years.
New Vestibule
July-November 2025
Over the summer of 2025, we took on the huge undertaking of demolishing and rebuilding the front vestibule. We created the whole structure out of steel so it's here to stay for a long time.
