Where Did All The Pen/stationary Stores Go?

[dan in montreal]

In Montreal, there are a few left: Stylo.ca downtown (they also have a store in a shopping mall a few km away in the suburbs), Nota Bene on Parc Ave. and Le Parchemin in the Berri metro station. Best selection is Stylo, downtown.

 

Do Mont Blanc boutiques count? Last time I visited one, fountain pens were the least of the concerns, as jewerly and fashion accessories occupied practically all of the space.

[Cursive4me]

Another one bites the dust. Paradise pens closed today. They were in the burbs of Chicago.

[kapanak]

Another one bites the dust. Paradise pens closed today. They were in the burbs of Chicago.

 

Seriously? Paradise Pens bought the WorldLux URL (the store in Seattle that closed a couple of years ago), and forwarded it to their site, and now they are going under as well? No indication from their site yet though. I've shopped there twice before ... in the California one, and the one in Dallas (it's the only pen store in all of the Dallas Forth Worth area). They have many stores, so it just might be the one in Illinois.

Edited April 2, 2016 by kapanak

[Cursive4me]

Seriously? Paradise Pens bought the WorldLux URL (the store in Seattle that closed a couple of years ago), and forwarded it to their site, and now they are going under as well? No indication from their site yet though. I've shopped there twice before ... in the California one, and the one in Dallas (it's the only pen store in all of the Dallas Forth Worth area). They have many stores, so it just might be the one in Illinois.

Yes, just the one here in the Chicago area.

[FountainPenCowgirl]

Small city in a flyover state. We had a decent stationer that never was a fountain pen haven but a source of other pens and supplies. The staff also would special order, a service I regularly used (eclectic tastes). Never tried to order fountain pens or supplies there, but I'm certain I could have done so.

 

I blame two factors for its demise: Walmart arriving and sale to new owners who didn't understand/mishandled their niche (and moved to a terrible new location). Not that Walmart was a competitor to this store... It was mostly gone when Staples moved in a few years later, largely by their own devices.

 

I never once saw a fountain pen or ink in our local Staples, not even the obligatory Cross, so I've been buying online from the since discovering them three years ago. Now, even Staples is no more. We are a wasteland.

[jmccarty3]

At times I try to think of extreme examples of cognitive dissonance.

 

How about a fountain pen in a Walmart?

[rosa_m]

Staples lists over 400 fountain pens on their website :

 

http://www.staples.com/Fountain+pens/directory_Fountain+pens?fids=Pen!Type_3A_22Fountain_22&sr=true&sby=&min=&max=

[zwack]

At times I try to think of extreme examples of cognitive dissonance.

 

How about a fountain pen in a Walmart?

 

I have been into Walmart and I was carrying a Fountain Pen.

 

Actually I remember someone extolling the virtue of a specific exercise book available from Walmart as being very FP friendly. I am sure that was purely by chance.

 

 

[craigs63]

Small city in a flyover state. We had a decent stationer that never was a fountain pen haven but a source of other pens and supplies. The staff also would special order, a service I regularly used (eclectic tastes). Never tried to order fountain pens or supplies there, but I'm certain I could have done so.

 

I blame two factors for its demise: Walmart arriving and sale to new owners who didn't understand/mishandled their niche (and moved to a terrible new location). Not that Walmart was a competitor to this store... It was mostly gone when Staples moved in a few years later, largely by their own devices.

 

I never once saw a fountain pen or ink in our local Staples, not even the obligatory Cross, so I've been buying online from the since discovering them three years ago. Now, even Staples is no more. We are a wasteland.

 

Not even a Hobby Lobby or art supply store around?

[carlos.q]

At times I try to think of extreme examples of cognitive dissonance.

 

How about a fountain pen in a Walmart?

Yes I have seen them, but then again they were disposable BIC fountain pens...

[Ecriveur]

Brick and mortar stores are very expensive, both in terms of rent and in terms of the staff and displays necessary to maintain them. I think the problem is that such stores (especially big boxes like Walmart and Staples), carry huge volumes of the stuff that most people buy (ball points, rollerballs, cheap paper etc.) that may have been commodity sales for the specialty stores in the past, and the small volume (but higher margin) products like fountain pens can't sustain a brick and mortar store that can sell only to people in the immediate vicinity. That's why you still see a few fountain pen specialty stores in the really huge cities (New York, D.C., Los Angeles) where the populations are so large that such a store might still be sustainable, but not much else. Of course, specialty stores and be online as well, so you get stores like Goulet Pen Co, with no retail store front to maintain, selling to everywhere in the U.S. (and internationally as well). That seems to be a viable business model, even under current market conditions.

 

I also wonder whether there might be a cultural factor in New York, DC and LA, apart from their size. In another thread there's a post about how Neil DeGrasse Tyson was recently spotted a book signing, signing copies of his latest book with a fountain pen. In that thread, I also noted that Neil Gaiman uses fountain pens (I've seen a picture of his Pilot Custom 823) and writes the first draft of his novels using two fountain pens. He uses two different colors and alternates from one day to the next so it's easy for him to see how much progress he's made from day to day). That makes me wonder whether fountain pens is more popular among professional writers than among the population generally, after adjusting for other factors, like income, geographic location, age etc. Likewise in DC and New York, there's probably a cultural norm that your expensive Montblanc (or Pelikan or Dupont or whatever) is what you take out of the jacket pocket of your expensive suit to sign that big contract. So fountain pens may be disproportionately popular among such people, even if they don't use them for long stretches of writing from day to day.

[Bookman]

At times I try to think of extreme examples of cognitive dissonance.

 

How about a fountain pen in a Walmart?

 

I actually bought a Pilot Metropolitan at Walmart about a year and a half ago. I wasn't going to buy it as I already owned three. I didn't need another one. But I didn't expect to see one at Walmart. And I couldn't leave it there for some jackass who knew nothing about fountain pens to remove from the package, vandalize, quite possibly by accident, and then return to the package for some unsuspecting buyer to deal with. I bought it, thoroughly tested it, and then gave it away.

[rosa_m]

... Went to Maido Stationary & Gifts in Alhambra yesterday .

Owned by the parent company of Kinokuniya , they had a slightly different selection of Japanese fountain pens with a few more higher end and overall slightly better pricing than downtown LA.

Customer service was much better ; as soon as I asked to see some , the lady first search for some writing paper , and brought out an A5 Rhodia grid pad .

I didn't find my Prince Charming but if I had , would have bought there and paid the hefty price premium .

Edited April 4, 2016 by rosa_m

[grainweevil]

How about a fountain pen in a Walmart?

 

It probably doesn't count, but here in the UK we have the "Asda" supermarket chain, who are "Part of the Walmart Family". Our local store has black Parker Vectors for sale, and during Back to School season I even found an Asda branded "Mini Fountain Pen". Something of a knock-off of a Pilot Petit, apart from one vital factor - the cap doesn't post securely. D'oh. Rather a vital feature for a pen that small, but hey, they tried.

[FountainPenCowgirl]

Not even a Hobby Lobby or art supply store around?

We're talking rural. There's a Hobby Lobby 45 miles from here, but I was lucky if I could find the gel pens I sought. Office Depots can be found in that city and another one semi-nearby but, as with our Staples, I've never seen fountain pens (and I used to frequent their "premium" pen cases for other items).

 

Praise the Internet gods for online resources. They keep me afloat.

[jkingrph]

Back in the mid 60's while in college I worked at the office supply/equipment my father managed. We had a decent selection of pens and inks. Mostly Esterbrook and Shaffer pens, and Shaffer inks, and some really good papers, usually sold by the ream. We did special order a Montblanc pen for a local physician, who promptly ruined it. I stil have a couple of pens I got there and some of what they called high rag content paper, which is good with fountain pens. Cross pen and pencil sets were popular but that was more ballpoints, and of course Bic was coming in. We even walled off a room in an upstairs warehouse area and added an air conditioning unit to keep from ruining ballpoints, and a few other specialty items.

 

In town we had another major competitor, a similar setup and a smaller stationary store, that was mostly pens, ink, paper and cards. The company I worked for is still there, actually split when the owners son ruined a retirement plan for a lot of employees, and they left forming another company. Neither is nothing like they were back in the 60's and 70's with the arrival of the internet, Office Depot, and Sams They do however offer a much better grade of office furniture and equipment than does the big box stores, going after customers who appreciate quality rather than mass produced junk.

[rosa_m]

Article in The Monrovia Weekly about The Fountain Pen Shop , one of the last bricks and mortar shops dedicated to sales and repairs of fountain pens .

http://www.monroviaweekly.com/business-community/business-profile-the-fountain-pen-shop-inc/

[rosa_m]

Went to Maido Stationary inside Mitsuwa Marketplace in Torrance .

Not worth going to unless your going to the Mitsuwa supermarket .

Small space , friendly staff , a few mid- range Japanese fountain pens .

 

The Pilot Kakuno childrens pen was $19.95 .

It's $10.66 with free Prime shipping on Amazon .

[Liis]

On Polish fountain pen users forums we had a discussion about B&M stationery stores recently.

 

I commute to Warsaw, in my home town of 30 thousand people, 35km north of Warsaw there are two small stationery stores, one of them has no fountain pens but small selection of Pelikan 4001 inks, the other has few low end Parkers and limited choice of Pelikan, Waterman and Parker inks.

 

But in Warsaw I know about at least 5 stationery stores with nice offer of fountain pens, unfortunately prices for high end, 'special order' pens are outrageous, for example one of the shops gave me a quote of around 620 while well known Dutch internet shop offered same pen for 445 including shipping.

 

There is also problem of professionalism. Only two of those 5 B&M stores have people genuinely interested in pens on staff.

On the other hand every one of handful of specialized on-line pen stores is owned by a person genuinely interested in the things they sell.

Would you mind giving me the addresses of those 5 stores?

I am going to visit Warsaw in September and perhaps I will be able to visit one or two.

Although due to my budget restrictions I am more interested in inks and not so much in the high-end pens...

[rwilsonedn]

Since this topic started the Village Stationers in Palo Alto (California) has closed, taking one more great place off the list. Apparently even high-end neighborhoods in university towns can't support a stationer any longer.

ron