Indigo Books & Music

Love Indigo Books and love that they have a Starbucks inside.
But I DO NOT LOVE the parking lot at Northgate/​Northtown.
Ugh… It is seriously the worst in the city, hands down.
Also, I’ve witnessed one too many police arrests in this parking lot and had a lady’d purse snatched who was walking right beside me here :-(
I prefer the West End location or South Side. Not the fault of staff or store but location.

It’s weird but I don’t like going to any other indigo location but this one, it’s very comfortable there, the staff is always asking questions and I remember one time I bought a book and just sat down on the floor and started reading in a corner and an employee came over and offered me hot chocolate from Starbucks, I took it of course! I love going here, it’s amazing and feels like home.

I’ve been here a few times and the last time was for a book signing. The parking on the weekends can be busy and difficult to find a spot in the front. We just parked at the back and walked around.
The book we were getting signed was displayed right after walking in. There was confusion which way the line was going to pay though. The line when straight back but then it hit a book shelf and people lined up on either side of it. For busy times, it would be great to know where to stand. The layout isn’t ideal with the shelves forming a V instead of horizontal lines.
Even though the layout isn’t great, the store is big and has lots of selection. They had children activities going on and it was great to see staff there and families doing crafts. The book signing line was along the wall by the Starbucks. People would cross to access the magazine area but it wasn’t a major inconvenience for everyone.
The staff were good to make sure we paid for our book and asked for our names for the book to be personalized. Someone offered to take our photo with the author which was a nice touch.
I didn’t browse much but did see to the side of the cash area is the stationary and gift area. A great addition to the strip mall but not a place I would frequent on busy weekends.

This is one of my favourite bookstores in the city! It’s big, bright, we’ll stocked, and the staff are always very helpful and easy to locate. In a store of this size, that’s important. This location in particular has a large selection of board games and toys, and the kids section is really well organized. This was one of the only places in the city I was able to find a reasonably priced baby book in an appealing design.
We don’t buy a huge amount of physical books for ourselves anymore as we both have kobo ereaders, but browsing is always a good time, and there are always a few titles that we want to have on the bookshelf. We still buy physical copies of graphic novels, comic compilations, and manga, and they have a decent selection of all of them here.
The online inventory is always accurate, which is a huge hall if you’re looking for something specific and want tonknownifnits there before you go in. All in all, this will continue to be my go to book store on the north end.

Do you ever get that «I need a book and a cappuccino all at the same time» feeling? Ya, well this place can help… and do it in a very subtle, low key fashion.
I like that they have a good kids section. The «gifts» part is pretty good too. The coffee is ok, but not stellar. they do keep pretty much all the books, at least the good books that are in demand, in stock at all times, so that’s admirable. I have to say, if you live in the area, this is definitely the book store to live by.
Indigo, you are good to go in my book (pun intended!)

I will say it right off the bat, my only complaint about this Chapters location is that… it’s location.
I work in the North end and on some days I find a happy refuge here during my 90 minute break between work in the North end and then the extreme North end. I come here to enjoy a yummy mocha or chai and from there I take a wonderful walk through the books… in particular, the sale books which are VERY well displayed vs. for example, the 170^th Str. location which for some reason I feel are displayed badly on the tables and can’t really see all the wonderful titles on sale. As well, the Staff is always around to answer questions without you needing to hunt and peck for too long. As well, for some reason I find this location, despite it’s size… cozy :-)
I find my best books here every time I visit and when I leave without buying one I look forward to my next visit … :-)

I try and use the libraries and second hand book stores as much as possible but if it’s from one of my two favorite authors and I just have to have it now then I hit up the fine folks at this indigo location. It’s a huge location with lots of stock and the majority of the friendly staff seem to know the layout pretty well and can easily direct you to what you are looking for. If for some reason they don’t have it then they will call another store for you and get it put on hold. They have good deals on gifty knick knacks as well. I was surprised to find they offer the best deals on Pop Vinyl figurines which I am an avid collector of. They also have a large selection of the gifts for the home (e.g blankets and vases) if you are into that sort of thing. A total gem of a chain store if your shopping on the North side!

This location of Indigo is quite large and has a big selection of books as well as cards, notebooks, home décor and gifts. It has all of the same stuff as the Chapters on Whyte or the one in Sherwood Park Mall, for example.
The staff are always quite helpful, and they must really take those surveys on the bottom of the receipts to heart, because they are almost too by-​the-​book customer service oriented. The last time I was there, I think every single person who works there approached me to ask how I was doing and if I needed any help! It’s appreciated, but I was just browsing and literally at least six people came up to me. It is helpful when you are looking for something specific, though. I was once looking for a book that the website said they had, but wasn’t on the shelf. The girl went into the back and looked all around for it for me. She really went out of her way.
I don’t like the way this store is organized. Rather than just straight bookshelves, the books in the centre of the store are on bookshelves that are curved, like if you cut a circle into four. It’s hard for me to explain, but it makes it weirder when browsing. Bleh. The categories on these curved bookshelves are organized awkwardly. This is where fiction, new releases, «hot» sellers and those types of genres are. Other sections are on normal, straight shelves and that’s way better. I find their travel section to be a bit lacking. Lots of cool household items that are probably useless but fun to look at.

Indigo is a Canadian retail bookstore chain, and they’re also the owners of other well-​known Canadian stores Chapters, and Coles. I drove up in to Indigo in search of a specific book (that thanks to their website, I knew was on sale!).
This specific store is huge, bright and airy, with beautiful book displays everywhere you look, a large stationary section, a Starbucks, a large kids section, and a selection of gifts such as cute housewares and novelty items. I walked in and was immediately greeted by two of their associates in a friendly manner.
I browsed around for a bit and used one of the Customer Kiosks, which is a touch screen computer that basically helps you browse the store’s inventory (and also tells you what section to look in for whatever you’re searching for). It was extremely user friendly and very useful.
It took me awhile to find my book (maybe 10 minutes of browsing, all though I do admit I wasn’t exactly focused) and right after I got my hands on it, another sales associate asked me if I needed help. I somewhat wished someone had offered me help sooner, but I did end up finding what I needed, so I can’t really complain too much.
I’m an iRewards member, which gets me 10% off of books and 5% off of gifts/​housewares/​etc. I find the sales racks at Indigo to be extremely cheap but the regular priced books are quite expensive — sometimes even more than the listed price on the back of the book.
Overall, if you are looking for a specific book or just a fun book-​shopping experience, Indigo is a great place to go. With a huge selection and a lovely, inviting atmosphere — shopping at Indigo is always something I look forward to.

I hadn’t been in the Indigo at Northtown mall so I decided to stop in. Holy big book store Bat Man! This place is much larger than it appears on the outside.
I was greeted by a table of gift items for Mother’s Day ranging from decorative tissues, pocket books, napkins and knick-​knacky types of things. OK, off to a good start! I B-​lined to the home décor section because I saw picture frames that may work in our rec room. Even though I didn’t find the types of frames I was looking for I get some good ideas for décor items. They have funky book ends, leather magazine organizers, organizing boxes amongst other things. They even had manly things like globes and rich, dark hued book ends and boxes for the «man cave».
The kids section was the next stop. WOW is all I can say. There were not only books galore, but a large play area with toys for kids. Yes, this is so important so you can actually look at books and have your child occupied for a few minutes. They also have a table and chairs for little ones to play with the toys or look/​read books. And there is story time throughout the week for kids as well.
Next it was my turn so I leisurely strolled up and down the aisle from the classics to home improvement, self help to cooking and last but not least the best sellers. I’m still pondering if I should buy Sense And Sensibility And Zombies. Oh hey, I got a gift card recently for Indigo and I just think I figured out how to get the book!