I may have mentioned once or twice that my favourite bookstore is Book Depot, a discount book retailer in St. Catharines, Ontario. Two of my aunts live in the area, so I shop there whenever I visit one of them, every six weeks or so. For the past week, Book Depot has been having its annual box sale, to make room for lots of new books in the warehouse in Thorold, Ontario. Since my roommate recently got her driver’s license, we decided to drive down to Thorold yesterday to see my aunt and buy some books.

Since my roommate isn’t comfortable driving on highways, we took the scenic route. Toronto’s Dundas St. W. becomes Highway 5 when it leaves the city, and runs through some fairly pleasant scenery.

We drove through Burlington, an attractive city on the shores of Lake Ontario, but with a much nicer waterfront area than Toronto has¹.

We crossed Burlington Bay on the Canal Lift Bridge instead of the Skyway.

From Eastport Dr., you can look across Burlington Bay to Hamilton’s industrial sector²

Once on the Niagara Peninsula, the land by the highway is mostly farmland.

Fruits, vegetables, corn, and grains are all grown in Niagara, but the region is also known for its many wineries and vineyards. Unfortunately, recent dry weather in the Peninsula has killed some vineyards.

The book sale was in the Thorold Community Arena, across the street from the Book Depot warehouse.

Book Depot supplied large cardboard boxes to fill with books. Each box of books (which had to be able to close properly) was $30. My aunt offered to buy me a box for my birthday, but we ended up sharing a box because neither of us could fill one on our own. Together, we got thirty books—so they worked out to be $1 each. I got 11 books.

At cover price, they would have cost me (or my aunt) a total of $465 CAD. My aunt paid $11 for them, a savings of $454 CAD or 98% off. Now that’s my kind of sale! Granted, I would never have bought most of these books even at regular discount prices, much less at cover price, but I still feel like I (or rather, my aunt) got a real bargain.

My roommate also had a good day, filling an entire box by herself.

We left my aunt’s house in Fonthill rather later than we wanted, and it was almost sunset by the time we set out on the 2.5-hour drive back to Toronto.

We reached home at 10:15 pm, well after dark, quite satisfied with our purchases.

1. The problem of what to do with Toronto’s waterfront, and where to get the money to do it with, is a constant source of conflict in our municipal politics. [back]
2. Hamilton produces 60% of Canada’s steel, and the city’s primary economic activity is manufacturing. It’s also the city where my mother was born, and she attended both high school and university there. [back]