With social media platforms such as BookTok breathing new life into bookselling, Lisa Bailey saw a chance to transform her father Barry Bailey’s small online bookshop into a physical, award-winning community destination with an active event calendar.Jason Franson
Barry Bailey, 69, has loved old books since he was a boy. He began collecting and repairing them in the late 1990s, with an interest in signed vintage editions and rare Canadian-history volumes. In 2003, after his cache began to take over the basement of his house, his wife suggested he find a space to rent.
“I was reading about how to get started selling books and one of the chapters was about this new thing called the internet,” he says. He learned about a platform called Abe Books – on which independent users could buy and sell their wares online via dial-up connection – and he signed up.
Bailey Books was born. But even after he moved his collection to an unassuming strip-plaza storefront in St. Albert, Alta., about a half hour north of Edmonton, Mr. Bailey didn’t keep retail hours and only sold his used books online, to customers across North America and as far away as China and Brazil.
Throughout, he also worked in communications as a program manager for community television and radio for 25 years, eventually running his own event production company until he retired from that in 2019. The book shop was his “jobby,” says his daughter Lisa Bailey, 38. “His job-slash-hobby.”
In 2023, Mr. Bailey made the tough decision to shut down because the landlord was selling the unit. “I thought that was so sad,” says Ms. Bailey, who at the time was a nail artist in Vancouver, “because he put 20 years of time and effort and love into this place and it just seemed like he wasn’t … ready to be done with it.”
She’d been using social media to boost her own business profile and spotted an opportunity to transform Bailey Books from a small online retailer into what it is today: an award-winning community bookstore with an active event calendar and social media virality.
She moved back to Alberta, her father bought the St. Albert space and the modern era of Bailey Books as a multigenerational bricks-and-mortar bookstore began.
Ms. Bailey is an avid reader well-versed in BookTok, the social media phenomenon that has breathed new life into the bookselling industry. She launched a social media presence right away, starting with a TikTok video. “I basically just said, ‘Hey, I’m Lisa, and I’m doing something crazy. I’m going into business with my dad and we’re gonna try and save his bookstore,’” she says.
Restoring well-loved books by hand is “very gratifying,” Barry says. Almost all his work “is for books that have a deep sentimental value.”Jason Franson
It went viral. Videos of her dad binding books quickly followed, equally as popular.
Within one year, Bailey Books was awarded the 2024 Small Business of the Year prize from the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce. In 2025, the store won for Best Marketing.
Independent bricks-and-mortar bookstores in Canada are indeed having a digital moment. According to Laura Carter, executive director of the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association, social media – particularly BookTok – has “created a much faster cycle of discovery, where a book can suddenly surge in popularity … and bookstores often see that translate directly into in-store demand.”
Ms. Bailey knows that she tapped into a zeitgeist that has helped with the store’s success. She has brought in new genres of fiction, particularly capitalizing on the BookTok boom in romance, fantasy and “romantasy” titles. “I was also seeing the trend of people moving away from digital and towards analog entertainment,” she says.
Her father focuses on bookbinding. He studied at the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride, Colo., and restores well-loved books by hand. “It’s very gratifying,” he says. “Almost all the [repairs] I do is for books that have a deep sentimental value.” However, the City of Edmonton recently commissioned him to recondition some fragile tax records from the early 1900s.
His daughter concentrates on promotion and events, such as Dungeons & Dragons nights, and a popular recurring book club. She has introduced new book-related merchandise including journals, puzzles and stickers – all from Canadian, women-owned businesses. Her efforts have transformed the once-quiet shop open only for the odd in-person pick-up into a thriving community hub that especially appeals to women, Bailey Books’ main customers. They also hired an employee who works Sundays.
Before opening to the in-person public, Mr. Bailey maintained steady sales and restoration work, but didn’t generate much profit. Having a mortgage once he bought the space meant that money needed to be made. “My favourite statistic is the first year that we were open for retail … our in-store sales increased 3,200 per cent,” Ms. Bailey laughs. Since then, revenue has increased year over year and 2026 is on track to be their best year since 2023.
But it’s about connection, not money, for the Baileys. “People walk in here and I say, ‘Hey, is your baby sleeping through the night?’ ‘Hey, you bought that Stephen King book – did you like it?’” Ms. Bailey says. “The best bookstores are … a space to gather.”
Customer Beth Banman visits Bailey Books with her son Theo. The store has become a thriving community hub that especially appeals to women.Jason Franson
Ms. Carter notes that even in a challenging retail environment, bookstores continue to open. “The sector has remained surprisingly resilient,” she says. “In Canada we continue to see new stores launching, often in smaller communities or neighbourhoods that want a local cultural hub.”
Ms. Bailey plans to stay in the family business as long as she can. “My dream is to turn this part of the city into like our own little Greenwich Village that has a printing press and a bookstore and a publishing house,” she says.
Currently, she’s in the midst of planning for one of the biggest days of the year, Canadian Independent Bookstore Day on April 25.
Bailey Books will be there – with food trucks, used books and its special brand of bonhomie.
Have a suggestion of a Canadian multigenerational family business for this regular series? E-mail smallbiz@globeandmail.com.