The Rise of Indigo

Indigo is the largest and only major surviving bookstore chain in the country. The Indigo brand has been expanding like crazy lately with a lot of new stores replacing Chapters and Coles locations. They have 209 stores operating under various banners including Indigo, Chapters, Coles, and IndigoSprit. In today’s post, I’ll be going over the rise of Indigo and how they grew to be Canada’s #1 bookstore.

Brief History

Indigo Books & Music was founded in 1996 by Heather Reisman. Indigo opened their first “superstore” in 1997. Indigo then merged with Chapters in August 2001, which got them a lot of locations under the Chapters and Coles banners.

Reinventing Indigo

Indigo introduced what they call a “Cultural department store concept”. While still featuring books, this concept expands Indigo’s non-book merchandise to include home decor, toys and more.

My thoughts

It’s kind of amazing seeing Indigo thrive a little pre-covid when most book retailers around the world are struggle. I think this is in large part of them being the only major bookstore chain left in the country after many of the independent chains died. I’m also surprised to see them open many mall locations when most chains are distancing themselves from malls even thought they are located at thriving malls. I hope to see Indigo flourish for many years to come.

Until next post, Dom

Sources

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_Books_and_Music

  2. https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/our-company/fast-facts/

Comments

  1. Retail RetellSeptember 30, 2020 at 12:45 PM

    Indigo sounds like a neat chain. I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before. I agree with you, it's cool that they have been expanding and also opening in malls. I hope they will continue to be successful, too.

    ReplyDelete

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