Saturday, June 6, 2009

Goodbye McGill’s and Hello Mag Nation

I heard on the news that McGill’s, my favourite magazine shop is closing its doors. Apparently it was bought by Campion but they found it too much of a struggle to keep it operating. This reminds me of a well known toy brand A from Europe. It was taken over by toy brand B, also from Europe. After the take over, all of the toys from toy brand A were renamed toy brand B. It was like that for a while until they decided to move the manufacturing offshore – to where else but China of course. When I saw the new batch in toy shops again, I was totally shocked. The quality was beyond dodgy. This is not turning into a China Bashing post as I have seen products from China that are of high standards and good workmanship. After a year or two, we stopped seeing the toys in the shops. Some people are totally against plastic toys but I really adore some of the classical pieces that were made by toy brand A. Unfortunately, they can only be bought occasionally on Ebay now. I am also a fan of toy brand B as they too used to make great quality wooden as well as plastic toys. It’s a pity that when they went offshore, their standards lowered beyond belief.

Oops! This post is meant to be about my favourite newsagent. Before Borders’ arrival, most Melbournians’ access to magazines from abroad was via McGill’s. At one point, they even stocked a magazine from my country of origin! They also stocked some lesser known Aussie magazines like Grassroots. The store had always been busy. So it was quite a shock to learn that it will not be around anymore. Also situated along Elizabeth Street is another big magazine shop called Mag Nation. We had been in there a few times but we have always been loyal to McGill’s. It looks like we will have to buy from them now. Mag Nation is actually quite a friendly place. There are comfy seats on every floor for customers to browse before making a purchase. When we were there on Wednesday, after checking out McGill’s one last time, I noticed that Mag Nation stocks some of the magazines that I like to buy from time to time. M also said the same about his selection of magazines.

2 comments:

Mag Nation said...

Hi Priscilla,

We at mag nation will welcome you with open arms. You might not believe us, but we were very sad to see McGills close down. Take a look at our blog post on the McGills closure titled "End of an Era" at http://blog.magnation.com/

Hopefully we can fill the void for you.

Priscilla said...

Hello Mag Nation. Thank you for dropping by my blog. I really appreciate that. I am off now to explore your website a little.