Les papeteries de Montréal
Montréal has been on a tear opening new shops that include a focus on general home goods with a healthy dose of stationery and paper goods. Much of the selection of the latter includes bespoke designs made by global producers but a few local makers have come along for the ride, some of which I’ve reviewed before. I’ve also reviewed a few of Montréal’s more specialized stationery shops in the past, but along with the aforementioned shops I’ve decided to pull together in this post all the places in Montréal where one can find fun stationery stuff.
The selection of generalist home goods stores with a paper goods section includes the stores Bouche Bée, Paperole, Artpop and Boucle et Papier.
Each of these stores has a varied focus including items like soaps, kitchen and dining wares, linens and printed or embroidered clothes, books and other souvenirs.
Their stationery sections consist of a generous selection of greetings cards and postcards, notepads and bespoke ballpoint pens, stickers, agendas and journals.
Most of these items are produced by global manufacturers in China or Malaysia, but a few come from local makers. Local brands include Citron et Miel, Mimosa, Lili Graffiti, Pigeon Letterpress and The Baltic Club.
Though I haven’t made it to them yet, Montréal and its surrounding regions include several other such stores including Arloca in Montréal, Aurérés in Sherbrooke and Projet Spécial near Blaineville.
More specialized local stationery vendors include shops previously reviewed such as Nota Bene, Nueva Era, Au Papier Japonais, Casse-Noisette and St-Armand.
Of course, larger chain stationery, office supply and art supply stores are also a necessary resource throughout the region. The Québec incarnation of US chain Staples is known as Bureau en Gros, and there is a regional chain known as Hamster, whose stores I find to be a slightly bigger version of the UPS Stores and Kinko’s back home.
Finally, the Québec-based art supply chain Omer DeSerres is an indispensable resource for both wordsmiths and visual artists.
Considering the recent emergence of so many new generalist homegoods and stationery shops that sell approximately the same variety of wares, I do worry that we’re seeing a bit of a bubble. Positioned largely to serve tourists and the urban affluent, and lacking the basic school and work supplies that make neighbourhood stationery stores a durable go-to for things people need in good times and bad, I’ll be interested in seeing how many of these remain a handful of years down the line. Nonetheless, I wish them well!
