Entrepreneur Kent McKenzie plans to close his 13-year-old Does Your Mother Know? magazine store June 24 in what is another example of how online media consumption is killing longtime brick-and-mortar businesses.
McKenzie’s three-employee store at 2139 4th Avenue is two blocks east of the location where video store Videomatica operated for 28 years before closing in 2011.
Videomatica’s owners blamed the digital content trend for their store’s demise. McKenzie similarly believes sales for print copies of magazines are dwindling partly because people are buying and reading digital versions of the publications to read on e-readers, iPads and other devices.
“My store is not making money at this point,” McKenzie told Business in Vancouver June 20. “It was always more of a labour of love, but recently it has got worse.”
McKenzie has been on a month-to-month lease for several years. He said he does not need to worry about getting rid of inventory because he is able to return magazines that he does not sell to the publishers.
He tried to sell the business but business brokers told him that no one would be interested in any venture that did not pull in at least $50,000 annually.
He said margins on magazines tend to be about 20%.
