In 1975, Fran and Bernie Bouffard moved from North Bay to Sudbury to open Bay Confectionary on Lasalle Boulevard.  The plan was to convert the confectionery into a bookstore which they did gradually bringing in more books as the years went by.  

 Eventually there was little room for food items and the name was changed to Bay Used Books.  In the early 1980’s, a second location was opened at 124 Elm Street.  Eventually the two locations were merged into one on Elm Street and in 2005 the business and building were sold to their daughter and son-in-law (Anne and Jim). 

                              

Jim was ready for a change after working in the IT sector for over 25 years so when Vincent was 4 years old, they made the move.  Since then, they have taken over Fran and Bernie’s dream of owning an amazing used bookstore and have made it their own.   

 

 

The building where the bookstore is located dates to the 1920’s (we believe) when it housed the Finnish Canadian communist newspaper and bookstore called Vapaus.  The newspaper which was published in the Finnish language from 1917 to 1974 was strongly associated with the Finnish Organization of Canada.  Since then, the building has housed a restaurant, lawyers office, boxing gym, charm school, and tattoo business  along with the bookstore.