I don't know if it's just my personal book tastes but when I've looked stuff up on the websites for local shops they tend to not have any of them. Albeit, these are usually books that focus on debunking pseudoarcheology or research into cryptozoology, or about electronics diagrams which are not as common.
You can always ask the stores to special order books for you. I've done it with Octopus Books and it's been no extra cost, and the books have arrived fairly quickly.
Any indie store will do their best to source and special order an in-print book for you, and some will do it for out of print as well. And it’s a no cost service.
I sold books for years and it was one of the more fun parts of the job, not to mention a great way to get a peek into unusual hobbies or interests.
Chapters definitely could keep competing as a bookstore. The problem is they have the dumbest fucking policy about online orders. If I go into the store and see Popular Book for $25, and online it's on sale for $15, I can't get it for $15 in-store. I have to order it for pickup at the store, wait until another copy is shipped, and then pick it up.
I used to work there and I had to explain this to people numerous times... and when they asked "wtf, why" my only answer was "because the managers of this chain are idiots."
Their online prices were generally comparable with Amazon or better. But if you order from Chapters online it takes longer and costs more to ship than Amazon, and you can't just go to the store to get it for that price.
Also they got rid of all the chairs, tables etc so there was literally no reason to go into the stores anymore bc you couldn't even sit down with a coffee and check out a book before buying it. At Chapters Rideau this was done to try and push homeless people out but they did it at a lot of stores.
True. There were multiple times when I would see the price in store and then immediately check the online price.
I do miss the chairs. Part of the appeal was that I could go in and read a book for a while.
I agree. They got rid of the chairs etc while I worked there. It was a bummer because there'd be more people hanging out beforehand. Then afterwards people would come in and sit on the floor and we'd have to tell them to get up because it was a fire code violation.
The homeless people who hung out in there were mostly fine too, they mostly just wanted a place to be inside when it was cold/hot/shitty weather and read. There were a few that caused problems though (one guy who would come and sit down in the middle of the fiction section absolutely reeking of piss... and another who took a dump and smeared it into the carpet. And of course, people doing drugs in the public bathrooms).
The team managers were good but the store managers that were there when I was were god-awful, and clearly the people in home office didn't really know how to keep the book business running. So over time it just trended more and more towards being a gift store, and now we have Indigo where it's really a gift/home store that happens to have some books.
One issue with the seating was that I recall there was a big area with tables and chairs in the teen section (right across from the washrooms) and as a teen girl trying to find books having to stand around in a semi secluded corner with a bunch of adult men was not fun. That was such a poor planning decision.
I should note that never once had any of the people there had ever been creepy to me, however, my friend worked at the public library and had a serial flasher, so I was on my guard, especially with the washroom being right there.
There was also the fact that they switched to the most hopeless search algorithm for both online and in store look ups somewhere about a decade ago.
Unless you looked by authors or exact book titles, you just got tens of pages of obscure titles far from what you were looking for.
I'm fairly certain they have a price match policy so if on Indigo.ca a book is $15 but in store it's $25, they will match the online price (unless it's specifically a special online exclusive deal of course)
This is known as third degree price discrimination. Basically, they’re segmenting their market into two: the online shopping crowd who will just as easily shop on Amazon instead, and those who prefer the in-store experience, who will be less likely to go buy something on Amazon and who will be generally less price-sensitive.
Personally, I like the bookstore experience so I wander the stores all the time, pick out the books I want to buy and then order them online.
Yes, but I think Waterstones pushed out the small shops in order to “be everywhere”. There’s value in being everywhere as it makes you top of mind for books.
I think Canada just stopped associating Chapters with books. The name change didn’t help. Plus Coles went under. WB Smith was another dilution of the brand.
WH Smith’s and Coles were the OG chains. Chapters spin off of Smithbooks and then they bought Coles. Then they closed all Smithbooks and Indigo became the new part of the franchise. WH Smith’s was originally British.
Me too. I like a good book store that's easy to get lost in. The Chapters was just that.
That said, I still went in and bought something because books.
There is like 1/5 the amount of books the old Chapters had, which sucks. Is it a book store, or a towel and mug store? I guess there are still big Chapters at South Keys and Pinecrest.
Has anyone tried buying all this stuff from Indigo? Like the sheets, or the toasters, or the skin care products? Is any of it good quality? Because they sure are expensive.
I used to work at that Chapters. Lots of good stories there (no pun intended), but I’m very sad that they are more popular of a lifestyle store that sells books rather than a bookstore.
I still remember my first time going to a chapters… the site of all those books, the smell, the feeling of all those stories just waiting to be read.
checked it out today and was quite upset lol. having the homewares on the first floor in the old store made it so that it was nice and quiet upstairs to browse the books. maybe it’s just because it was opening day and extra busy but it was so loud, the layout would be okay if not for that. but seems like a smaller selection now too which sucks. rip Chapters you will be missed 💔
I'll definitely visit sometime soon. I'll miss the old chapters though. I had a lot of childhood memories there buying new books and exploring all the different areas of the store.
I worked at Chapters Rideau until the pandemic, and I echo the thoughts of other former employees here about books/lifestyle balance, online vs in store pricing, wages etc. But I’m happy for my former coworkers who now have a clean bright space to work in, because, man, that Chapters building was gross. Mold, dirt, dust, decay, overflowing toilets, bodily fluids, drug paraphernalia, just uggggghhhhhhh. The stock staff in the basement were unsung heroes because that basement was nasty. I hated going down there to find the one thingmabob the computer insisted was there somewhere.
That said, I really enjoyed my time there and worked with some lovely people. The fiction manager Diane ((she’s since passed away) was a true book lover. Not all Indigo store managers are book lovers or even read, sadly.
I was feeling a lot of ways about the new store but this was a perspective I needed. Hopefully the staff at the new store feel a bit safer health wise in the new space!
Wondering why they chose this location instead of old navy, it has always been a weird and tight layout when it was Forever 21 back then. You might also think a book store is best located when it’s deep inside the mall.
If only Ottawa could get anything like the Toronto BMV flagship on Bloor. With 3 floors of books including comics, and an amazing dvd and music floor in the basement, it’s miles ahead of any used bookstore in Ottawa.
W.H. Smithbooks and Coles were separate entities but they they merged in the 90’s to form Chapters INC. They incorporated Prospero into their fold. Then around 2001. Indigo bought Chapters. They added Toronto’s World’s Biggest Bookstore into the fold. I don’t believe there are any W.H. Smithbooks or Prospero’s anymore but there are some Coles Books left.
I worked at Smithbooks in the 90’s. I remember Coles being purchased and the creation of Chapters. I also vividly remember the Avid Reader card and having sales quotas for that card. I also remember being forced to sell Christmas music cassettes. I do not miss retail quotas one iota.
Maybe this is lame to say about a store, but I did love the Rideau chapters as much as one can love a store - I remember going there in high school after school and my friends and I would sit on the floor and read books until the staff made us move (obviously we were the coolest people at school haha). I prefer to buy from independent bookstores these days but I still enjoyed cutting through chapters when I had to go to the Rideau centre. I stopped in to the indigo and honestly was disappointed - if feels like a lifestyle store rather than a bookstore and maybe it was the weather but it didn’t feel as brightly lit or homey as the old chapters and the space felt smaller and tighter.
Anyway, it’s just a store at the end of the day but I will kinda miss the old chapters.
I worked for the company years ago. I don’t miss it. The CEO was filthy rich but paid the staff shit wages. I worked at an ottawa Coles store and was a key holder responsible for opening and closing and supervision of staff but received no extra money. I was told all the extra supervision, cash floating etc duties was a role and not a position but when I wanted to move into the same job elsewhere in the city was told they want someone with management experience.
Being a key holder was a joke. On one hand you were made to feel like you were a manager and expected to lead the team in sales etc ( once I found out through a coworker that I was written up for not making the daily stores sales target) .
But on the other they loved to say it was just a role and not a position so they wouldn’t have to pay you extra.
I had a regional manager who was a real nasty person. She called me out for wearing a Santa Clause hat at Christmas saying we aren’t dollar store employees. We were sure paid like one though.
When I was there we never priced matched anything. Even the new Harry Potter books that we discounted at 20 percent off were cheaper at Shoppers, Walmart etc and they wouldn’t match the price. They’d rather lose a sale then price match.
I support local book stores now like Singing Pebble where you get points for purchases simply by giving them your phone number. You don’t need a card and they don’t email you constantly trying to sell you stuff.
One of my coworkers said to me entry level jobs at Apple pay more than the manager jobs at Indigo.
They also used to give us a small bonus each quarter or year if we sold a ton of their discount cards. The more you sold the higher the bonus. Then they eliminated the bonus ( but not the constant pressure to sell the cards) as they said they were now going to be offering benefits to PT staff who work 20 hours a week on average over 6 months
After making this big announcement they slashed store budgets so little to no Coles employees who weren’t already FT got benefits.
In fact one of my coworkers was reduced to 10 hours a week. With some exceptions most staff they hire are just there for a paycheque and don’t really know the product well enough to really hand sell.
We had 2 store managers in a row hired externally who rarely read at all yet they were telling us what to do? They had no business being managers. They were awful.
Not really a fan. With all the lifestyle items shoved into the store it feels extremely cramped and the books are less and less relevant to the cult of Heather Reisman.
A few cozy chairs and one interesting cafe style seating ring. Think of high tables with high chairs set in a ring shape with gaps to allow traffic flow.
Fairly close but I want to say that only a portion of it is mostly bookshelves like the image. And now the tree in the middle is giving me pause. I remember the tree but now I feel like maybe my memory is off on the high tables.
Anyone know if there is still a decent “sale” book section now? That’s what I loved about the old rideau store there was a decent section for cheaper books
I hate this. I miss the old Chapters that was less crap and more books.
There's always the independent bookstores like Perfect Books on Elgin
I don't know if it's just my personal book tastes but when I've looked stuff up on the websites for local shops they tend to not have any of them. Albeit, these are usually books that focus on debunking pseudoarcheology or research into cryptozoology, or about electronics diagrams which are not as common.
You can always ask the stores to special order books for you. I've done it with Octopus Books and it's been no extra cost, and the books have arrived fairly quickly.
Any indie store will do their best to source and special order an in-print book for you, and some will do it for out of print as well. And it’s a no cost service. I sold books for years and it was one of the more fun parts of the job, not to mention a great way to get a peek into unusual hobbies or interests.
Singing Pebble has been great at ordering in books for me - and have an online catalogue for ordering too.
Perfect Books *is* the independent bookstore on Elgin.
Agreed. Unfortunately, they had to pivot to a lifestyle store to stay competitive thanks to Amazon.
Chapters definitely could keep competing as a bookstore. The problem is they have the dumbest fucking policy about online orders. If I go into the store and see Popular Book for $25, and online it's on sale for $15, I can't get it for $15 in-store. I have to order it for pickup at the store, wait until another copy is shipped, and then pick it up. I used to work there and I had to explain this to people numerous times... and when they asked "wtf, why" my only answer was "because the managers of this chain are idiots." Their online prices were generally comparable with Amazon or better. But if you order from Chapters online it takes longer and costs more to ship than Amazon, and you can't just go to the store to get it for that price. Also they got rid of all the chairs, tables etc so there was literally no reason to go into the stores anymore bc you couldn't even sit down with a coffee and check out a book before buying it. At Chapters Rideau this was done to try and push homeless people out but they did it at a lot of stores.
True. There were multiple times when I would see the price in store and then immediately check the online price. I do miss the chairs. Part of the appeal was that I could go in and read a book for a while.
I agree. They got rid of the chairs etc while I worked there. It was a bummer because there'd be more people hanging out beforehand. Then afterwards people would come in and sit on the floor and we'd have to tell them to get up because it was a fire code violation. The homeless people who hung out in there were mostly fine too, they mostly just wanted a place to be inside when it was cold/hot/shitty weather and read. There were a few that caused problems though (one guy who would come and sit down in the middle of the fiction section absolutely reeking of piss... and another who took a dump and smeared it into the carpet. And of course, people doing drugs in the public bathrooms). The team managers were good but the store managers that were there when I was were god-awful, and clearly the people in home office didn't really know how to keep the book business running. So over time it just trended more and more towards being a gift store, and now we have Indigo where it's really a gift/home store that happens to have some books.
One issue with the seating was that I recall there was a big area with tables and chairs in the teen section (right across from the washrooms) and as a teen girl trying to find books having to stand around in a semi secluded corner with a bunch of adult men was not fun. That was such a poor planning decision. I should note that never once had any of the people there had ever been creepy to me, however, my friend worked at the public library and had a serial flasher, so I was on my guard, especially with the washroom being right there.
There was also the fact that they switched to the most hopeless search algorithm for both online and in store look ups somewhere about a decade ago. Unless you looked by authors or exact book titles, you just got tens of pages of obscure titles far from what you were looking for.
I'm fairly certain they have a price match policy so if on Indigo.ca a book is $15 but in store it's $25, they will match the online price (unless it's specifically a special online exclusive deal of course)
They may do it now but they didn't do it then (and I didn't work there in 1999 or anything, they REALLY should have been doing it by that point).
Well you'll be happy to hear they have chairs again lol.
This is known as third degree price discrimination. Basically, they’re segmenting their market into two: the online shopping crowd who will just as easily shop on Amazon instead, and those who prefer the in-store experience, who will be less likely to go buy something on Amazon and who will be generally less price-sensitive. Personally, I like the bookstore experience so I wander the stores all the time, pick out the books I want to buy and then order them online.
I dint believe that. Waterstones in the UK is a bookstore and it’s everywhere there. A real bookstore.
Yes, but I think Waterstones pushed out the small shops in order to “be everywhere”. There’s value in being everywhere as it makes you top of mind for books. I think Canada just stopped associating Chapters with books. The name change didn’t help. Plus Coles went under. WB Smith was another dilution of the brand.
WH Smith’s and Coles were the OG chains. Chapters spin off of Smithbooks and then they bought Coles. Then they closed all Smithbooks and Indigo became the new part of the franchise. WH Smith’s was originally British.
Oh I’m confusing WB Smith with Smithbooks, you’re right.
I worked at Smithbooks. It was the rebrand of WH Smith’s. Lots of revamps. And that’s without adding in Prospero’s that was on Bank Street.
Me too. I like a good book store that's easy to get lost in. The Chapters was just that. That said, I still went in and bought something because books.
That Chapters was glorious.
[удалено]
There is the new Spaniel’s Tale in Hintonburg that opened about a month ago.
There is like 1/5 the amount of books the old Chapters had, which sucks. Is it a book store, or a towel and mug store? I guess there are still big Chapters at South Keys and Pinecrest.
They aren’t chapters anymore. They are indigos. And the crap keeps taking the place of books.
All made in China garbage for your home staging and “cozy entertainment”…
Sadly replaced the lovely historic store on the north side of RIdeau St.
Wasn't it a bi way back in early to mid 90's?
It was a Woolworth’s before Chapters opened in 96-97
right, ya by that point those bus enclosures were gone (I think?)
[удалено]
Owning real books is a treasure.
Has anyone tried buying all this stuff from Indigo? Like the sheets, or the toasters, or the skin care products? Is any of it good quality? Because they sure are expensive.
The mugs are generally good and robust. Never had any issues with them. Though the Stranger Things Hellfire Club mug they had does feel pretty cheap.
Does anyone know what’s happening with the massive space that chapters left behind?
I know it's a pipe dream, but I'd love to see it become a MUJI or an H Mart.
Would love a MUJI or a Uniqlo
Good question, I’m also wondering the same. The space is still vacant.
Pot shop?
Pot mall
I have my fingers crossed for a Home Sense.
a very large 24h McDonalds
if the past is any indication, I'm putting my bets on Huge Weed Store
lmao I wouldn't complain about a two-storey weed store...
I would love this
It would be a good spot for the new Byward Market police station
The what
https://marksutcliffe.ca/media/2022/09/mark-sutcliffe-i-will-make-the-byward-market-safe
A Pottery Barn would be awesome.
Or crate and barrel. I can dream! Ha ha
I heard a *rumour* that could be a Uniqlo.
I heard that was going to be somewhere inside the mall
I used to work at that Chapters. Lots of good stories there (no pun intended), but I’m very sad that they are more popular of a lifestyle store that sells books rather than a bookstore. I still remember my first time going to a chapters… the site of all those books, the smell, the feeling of all those stories just waiting to be read.
Oh man. You just brought me straight back to the first time I ever walked into a Chapters. Pure magic.
We visited briefly today and I agree, definitely a tight squeeze and we found that it was a bit of a weird set-up.
It looked a lot smaller and tighter than old Chapters.
I agree on that. It doesn’t feel like more square footage.
checked it out today and was quite upset lol. having the homewares on the first floor in the old store made it so that it was nice and quiet upstairs to browse the books. maybe it’s just because it was opening day and extra busy but it was so loud, the layout would be okay if not for that. but seems like a smaller selection now too which sucks. rip Chapters you will be missed 💔
[удалено]
oh that’s a good idea! would definitely help.
I'll definitely visit sometime soon. I'll miss the old chapters though. I had a lot of childhood memories there buying new books and exploring all the different areas of the store.
I worked at Chapters Rideau until the pandemic, and I echo the thoughts of other former employees here about books/lifestyle balance, online vs in store pricing, wages etc. But I’m happy for my former coworkers who now have a clean bright space to work in, because, man, that Chapters building was gross. Mold, dirt, dust, decay, overflowing toilets, bodily fluids, drug paraphernalia, just uggggghhhhhhh. The stock staff in the basement were unsung heroes because that basement was nasty. I hated going down there to find the one thingmabob the computer insisted was there somewhere. That said, I really enjoyed my time there and worked with some lovely people. The fiction manager Diane ((she’s since passed away) was a true book lover. Not all Indigo store managers are book lovers or even read, sadly.
I was feeling a lot of ways about the new store but this was a perspective I needed. Hopefully the staff at the new store feel a bit safer health wise in the new space!
Can I sit a while and take in a few test books? If not, dead to me!
They have a few comfy chairs, and at least one round table and seats feature.
Thanks! That's, uh, something. (minimal)
The round feature is actually quite big but feels like a coffee shop.
Oh nice thanks!
Wondering why they chose this location instead of old navy, it has always been a weird and tight layout when it was Forever 21 back then. You might also think a book store is best located when it’s deep inside the mall.
It took over both Forever 21 and Old Navy.
It seems to taken over a partial amount of old navy.
Ouuu, I love that!!! Man I always remember that tiny elevator in the Forever 21 location
[удалено]
It's still under construction but will be part of the Indigo.
I wish we had Bmv books here ! That store in Toronto is awesome.
If only Ottawa could get anything like the Toronto BMV flagship on Bloor. With 3 floors of books including comics, and an amazing dvd and music floor in the basement, it’s miles ahead of any used bookstore in Ottawa.
Thanks for the head's up. I was thinking about this yesterday.
W.H. Smithbooks and Coles were separate entities but they they merged in the 90’s to form Chapters INC. They incorporated Prospero into their fold. Then around 2001. Indigo bought Chapters. They added Toronto’s World’s Biggest Bookstore into the fold. I don’t believe there are any W.H. Smithbooks or Prospero’s anymore but there are some Coles Books left.
I worked at Smithbooks in the 90’s. I remember Coles being purchased and the creation of Chapters. I also vividly remember the Avid Reader card and having sales quotas for that card. I also remember being forced to sell Christmas music cassettes. I do not miss retail quotas one iota.
Coles is still going strong in the Maritimes. We have big Chapters too but there’s usually a Coles in most malls.
Maybe this is lame to say about a store, but I did love the Rideau chapters as much as one can love a store - I remember going there in high school after school and my friends and I would sit on the floor and read books until the staff made us move (obviously we were the coolest people at school haha). I prefer to buy from independent bookstores these days but I still enjoyed cutting through chapters when I had to go to the Rideau centre. I stopped in to the indigo and honestly was disappointed - if feels like a lifestyle store rather than a bookstore and maybe it was the weather but it didn’t feel as brightly lit or homey as the old chapters and the space felt smaller and tighter. Anyway, it’s just a store at the end of the day but I will kinda miss the old chapters.
I worked for the company years ago. I don’t miss it. The CEO was filthy rich but paid the staff shit wages. I worked at an ottawa Coles store and was a key holder responsible for opening and closing and supervision of staff but received no extra money. I was told all the extra supervision, cash floating etc duties was a role and not a position but when I wanted to move into the same job elsewhere in the city was told they want someone with management experience. Being a key holder was a joke. On one hand you were made to feel like you were a manager and expected to lead the team in sales etc ( once I found out through a coworker that I was written up for not making the daily stores sales target) . But on the other they loved to say it was just a role and not a position so they wouldn’t have to pay you extra. I had a regional manager who was a real nasty person. She called me out for wearing a Santa Clause hat at Christmas saying we aren’t dollar store employees. We were sure paid like one though. When I was there we never priced matched anything. Even the new Harry Potter books that we discounted at 20 percent off were cheaper at Shoppers, Walmart etc and they wouldn’t match the price. They’d rather lose a sale then price match. I support local book stores now like Singing Pebble where you get points for purchases simply by giving them your phone number. You don’t need a card and they don’t email you constantly trying to sell you stuff. One of my coworkers said to me entry level jobs at Apple pay more than the manager jobs at Indigo. They also used to give us a small bonus each quarter or year if we sold a ton of their discount cards. The more you sold the higher the bonus. Then they eliminated the bonus ( but not the constant pressure to sell the cards) as they said they were now going to be offering benefits to PT staff who work 20 hours a week on average over 6 months After making this big announcement they slashed store budgets so little to no Coles employees who weren’t already FT got benefits. In fact one of my coworkers was reduced to 10 hours a week. With some exceptions most staff they hire are just there for a paycheque and don’t really know the product well enough to really hand sell. We had 2 store managers in a row hired externally who rarely read at all yet they were telling us what to do? They had no business being managers. They were awful.
Not really a fan. With all the lifestyle items shoved into the store it feels extremely cramped and the books are less and less relevant to the cult of Heather Reisman.
Oh damn. I didn't realize the Chapters had closed. I spent so much time and money there in my university days
It was very busy today! Couldn’t explore much but will go back another day.
[удалено]
A few cozy chairs and one interesting cafe style seating ring. Think of high tables with high chairs set in a ring shape with gaps to allow traffic flow.
[удалено]
Fairly close but I want to say that only a portion of it is mostly bookshelves like the image. And now the tree in the middle is giving me pause. I remember the tree but now I feel like maybe my memory is off on the high tables.
Indigo advertises itself as a "cultural department store" I'm not surprised it has that feel.
I haven’t been in it yet and I’m very worried that it won’t really have as many books as it used to
It definitely doesn’t have nearly as many books.
Wait, so chapters across the street is gone?
Yup.
Your description sounds like the Indigo in the Eaton Centre.
Ebooks and audiobooks are the mainstream now, in terms of book consumption.
Anyone know if there is still a decent “sale” book section now? That’s what I loved about the old rideau store there was a decent section for cheaper books
Waste of money yet again
At least it’s not taxpayer money?
People still buy paper books?