Iconic Toronto bookstore forced out of location after nearly 40 years

After nearly four decades, a stalwart bookstore on a busy Toronto street is being forced out of its home due to creeping rent and rising property taxes.

Whether you're an avid bookworm or a mere passerby, Yonge and Wellesley's ABC Book Store is likely a familiar facade. Marked by its unmistakable sign, which declares its name in attention-grabbing block letters, the shop is nothing short of a local landmark.

Around since 1988, ABC Books has kept the community's shelves stocked with second-hand books and magazines from philosophy to fashion for the better part of 40 years, but that tenure is soon to end.

Owner Patrick Hempelmann, who also owns Toronto's BMV Books, of which ABC is a subsidiary, confirms to blogTO that the store is slated to close its doors at the end of October 2026, but, on the bright side, a new location is also in the works in the area of Queen West and John.

Hempelmann explains to blogTO that, despite ABC Books' lengthy tenure in the Yonge and Wellesley neighbourhood, financial factors have increasingly made it impossible to stay.

"We love the neighbourhood, but the rents have just been driven up by property taxes that are unsustainable for small businesses," Hempelmann tells blogTO.

It's not the only nearby bookstore to be affected by the area's rising prices. In 2025, Glad Day Book Shop, the oldest LGBTQ+ bookshop in the world, was similarly forced to relocate after 55 years on Church.

It, similarly, settled into a new home just off Queen Street West.

If you're not yet ready to part with ABC Books, you're in luck. The store is slated to remain open until Oct. 31, whereupon it'll move into its new digs on Queen West. Before that happens, though, everything in the store is 50 per cent off because, as an Instagram post announcing the closure says, "no one wants to carry heavy boxes of books, magazines, comics and more."

ABC Books is located at 662 Yonge St.