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by jimrhods23 2606 days ago
"It may seem strange for a bookstore chain to be developing and selling artisanal soup bowls and organic cotton baby onesies. But Indigo’s approach seems not only novel but crucial to its success and longevity"

This is the Amazon model. Start with books and move onto other items. Great for them, but not novel or innovative.

2 comments

Yeah, but it's not. Ever since Amazon.ca really established their presence here, there's not a lot of reason to buy from Indigo unless they're heavily discounting something.

Their selection is generally meager compared to a lot of other online stores here. Honestly, every time I pass by a Chapters/Indigo, I'm surprised they're still around.

My guess is that they still get a lot of bricks and mortar customers who want instant gratification with a dead tree book purchase (provided it's a popular, stocked title).

Two times I go to the Indigo near me: a) wander around after I get a coffee at the attached starbucks, and 2) my kids have giftcards to spend from birthdays/christmas.

Only once in the last year did I have a focused reason to hit them up, I wanted to get a certain book for my kid to start reading together THAT NIGHT.

But in meatspace?