[URBAN NOTE] On the Indigo at Sherway Gardens and the return of the bookstore

[rfmcdonald]

In "The bookstore makes a comeback", the Toronto Star's Francine Kopun looks at Indigo, Canada's dominant bookstore. With growing sales of books among young people and an apparently successful reorientation as a cultural department store, Indigo's future seems assured.

After years spent battling a declining book market and defying prophecies of doom, Indigo is back in growth mode, said founder and CEO Heather Reisman, leading a guided tour of a new store at Sherway Gardens on Tuesday.

It’s the first store the chain has opened in more than five years, and follows a series of high-profile Indigo closures that included the Runnymede Theatre store, the World’s Biggest Bookstore and the location at John St. and Richmond St. W. in downtown Toronto.

“So many people were writing Indigo off,” said Reisman. “The key is to reinvent, to create a new vision and to go to that vision with real conviction.”

Reisman said sales of physical books grew eight per cent last year, which is creating a cautious optimism among Canadian booksellers.

In 2015, the number of books sold nationally increased to 52.6 million, up from 52 million in 2014 and 2013, according to data from Booknet Canada.