If you’re looking for a wide selection of books at competitive prices in Canada, there’s an Indigo location not far from you ready to provide that. This Canadian company operates 249 locations in all ten Canadian provinces. While they are of various sizes, 88 of them are in the “superstore” format; stores that focus on customer service for book, music, and film lovers in a comfortable, stress-free environment.
Indigo Books & Music Inc. (IDG) has their headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. They trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and started operations in 1996. Their desire was to give booklovers the charm of a small-proprietor shop combined with the huge selection of a true book emporium. In 2001, they merged with Chapters Inc. Today, they are Canada’s largest book retail chain.
Indigo Books & Music Inc. operates their stores under the Indigo, Chapters, World’s Biggest Bookstore, Coles, Indigospirit, SmithBooks, and The Book Company names. They also have their online business at chaptersindigo.ca. This online part of their business retails books, music, movies and toys, along with iPods and other items. They offer over one million products for sale online.
Indigo was the first book retail chain to add music, gifts, and licensed cafes to their store locations in Canada. These stores cater to their customers with different events like book readings, cooking demonstrations, book club meetings, storytime, and information sessions in their locations across Canada.
Indigo Books & Music also gives back to the community on a regular basis. Through their Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, they and their customers give over $1.5M a year to provide books to high-needs elementary schools in Canada to encourage reading and give children the books they need to get started.
Heather Reisman is the CEO of Indigo. She spent sixteen years as the Managing Director of Paradigm Consulting, which she co-founded in 1979. This strategy and change management firm was the world’s first strategic change consultancy.
In 1992, she took over as President of Cott Corporation. This Canadian-based regional bottler became the world’s largest retailer-branded beverage supplier under her leadership. She led the company so effectively that Harvard University wrote two case studies focusing on Cott’s growth and development due to her efforts.
As CEO, Heather offers her favorite book picks for her customers. These are “Heather’s Picks” and get special exposure in the company’s retail locations across Canada. She also interviews well-known authors about their lives via in-store sessions that customers can attend.
Indigo Books & Music Inc. continues to innovate so they can remain the premier Canadian retailer of books. Along with their other product lines, Indigo strives to offer customers quality reading, music, film, and gifts at affordable prices. With their laid-back stores and great variety of products, Indigo continues to lead the charge in Canadian book retailing.
Let us hear your thoughts below: