bcbusiness.ca august 2014 BCBusiness 51
MarGot MCrae
Owner of THe VaNcOuVer PeN SHOP
512 West Hastings St., Vancouver
W
e don't expect people to buy a pen every time they
come in—people can drop by, see what they like and
it's our social life as much as it is our business. We
have a couple of customers who are here every Sat-
urday morning for coff ee. They started coming when
their son was a year old, and he's now 21.
The store was originally owned by Paul and Margaret Leveque.
Paul used to do repairs, and he was a wholesaler for Parker, Sheaff er
and Cross. Margaret opened the business in 1986 with another friend,
and I joined them a year later. Eventually Paul, who worked upstairs,
closed his offi ce and came down and joined us. Paul passed away
in 2004, and before Margaret passed away four years ago, we made
an arrangement for me to take it over. The shop girls—Shannon and
Fernie—were already here. They've both been here for 20 years.
Paul and Margaret were old school, and they didn't buy anything
that they couldn't pay for. We've kept it the same way; everything in
the store is paid for, and we haven't had to run on credit. We have
never really strived to be much larger than what we are.
The price range in the store is anywhere from $2.79 for a basic
pen to $3,000 for a high-end fountain pen. Those are usually special
editions: they're numbered, and they'll always have a solid gold nib.
The nicest part of a gold nib is that it wears to your hand, and it will
be personally yours. We're fi nding a lot of young high-school students
are becoming intrigued by fountain pens. They've never tried them
and they want one. And there are some very reasonable ones for $20
or $30.
We get all types of people coming in: little tiny kids right up to
politicians. When Gordon Campbell was premier, he was a major
customer. He liked fountain pens, and after some major transactions,
he'd buy another one, so they signifi ed something to him. We also
get a lot of doctors, lawyers
and judges—people who
sign things. I always say that
people may not need them as
much as they used to, but
you will always, at some
point, need a pen.
■
FRESH INK Margot
McRae has found a
surprising new market
for fountain pens: high-school
students.
