Indigo

Can’t find any greeting cards in FRENCH in this store… And cashier can barely speak french also… Very disappointing in Quebec!

You like books. I like books. There’s a million books here and so you naturally feel at home, even if it’s a big box chain retailler. Shocking the new renovations have added some local flavour (coffee bar stocked with local Café St-​Henri Roasters and AuxVives meals) and reader friendly improvements to the book shelf layout.
Yeah I mean you’re wondering whether today is the day you get to the door and it’s closed because «who buys physical books right?» (RIP Chapters), but until then …

This store is above average as a bookstore, as the inventory of books is not enormous. That said, it’s awesome to have an English bookstore smack dab downtown, and I LOVE the layout of this place, with books downstairs and up, and gift items on both floors, a cute café on the second floor, a central staircase right in the middle, a great kids’ area upstairs (complete with toys and baby gifts), and a lovely home accessory/​gift section upstairs as well.
If I still lived in the city here, I’d hang out here regularly. Super place to grab a tea, read a book, people watch.
Note that there are nice bathrooms on the second floor, too.
Prices seemed high, but there were ongoing deals on books (i.e., purchase 2, get 1 free, or buy 1 and get 1 half off).

decent bookstore that do not carry everything. at least, compare to their online store and other book shops.
the good about this place is the café where you can sit down and read while enjoying a coffee or some snack. the multiples chairs/​sofa lying around where you can sit and read. other bookstores will most definitely kick you out for reading and not buying anything.
the bad is definitely the price. its the priciest of places so you’re better off shopping around.
still a good place to bring kids to and let them read comic/​cartoon or teach them about stuff. free education ;)

Grande librairie avec un large choix de livres. Ce que j’aime c’est avoir des livres en français mais aussi en anglais, on trouve aussi un vaste rayon sur les l’apprentissage des langues, idéal quand on veut apprendre une nouvelle langue.
J’aime beaucoup le coin papeterie avec tout ces carnets et autres gadgets dont on a pas forcément besoin mais qu’on achète quand même, juste parce que c’est mignon ! Le personnel est attentif et prêt a nous aider. Très bonne succursale.

Énorme succursale avec un vaste choix de livres et accessoires en tout genre. Chaque fois que j’y vais, j’y fais toujours de jolis trouvailles. La semaine dernière, j’ai été agréablement surprise en y découvrant les deux derniers tomes d’une série de mangas que j’achetais sur le web jusque là parce que quasi-​introuvable en boutique à Montréal… youpi!
Les différentes sections sont bien fournies (fiction, psychologie, enfants, voyages, etc.) et le personnel est toujours très sympathique.
À éviter en après-​midi le weekend… la boutique est vraiment bondée!

Très bon service rapide en ce temps des fêtes. Articles très variés, je pourrais y passer des heures!

This place is my 2^nd home — I’m one of those people who still buys books despite an overflowing bookshelf and the cost associated to buying so many books.
So, let’s talk Indigo. First, the location is great — in the heart of downtown on McGill and Ste. Catherine. Second, it’s big — Indigo is spread out on two floors, with crazy high ceilings and almost every genre of book you can think of. They also carry a wide selection of magazines for those of you who prefer quick reads. On the main floor, you will find a Kobo kiosk where you can check out E-​readers and get some advice from the guy who mans the station. You will also find cards, agendas and notebooks in a variety of patterns and colors. Upstairs, you will find more books, including my two favorite sections — fiction and biography. They also have a pretty decent ‘home’ section where you can find candles, throws, cushions, vases etc. There’s also a small coffee shop but they don’t make great coffee (though, it’s been years since I had coffee there so perhaps this has changed). Rare has been the occasion when I haven’t found what I was looking for at Indigo. That said, it’s cheaper to buy online, so these days I tend to stop by the store if I want to check out books I plan to buy online (I have a system to determine if a book will be good or not!) or if I absolutely need a book NOW. While I like that I can use debit online via Indigo’s web site, the fact is that Amazon ships more quickly. Me not being super patient when I want something, I tend to opt for the faster shipment even if it means paying via credit card.

*Sigh* ahh Well it’S a great location. I boycott Archambault and Renaud Bray for various reasons so I’m kind of f_​ked ’cause there’s isn’T any big store left other then indigo-​Chapters. In my humble opinion the Reward point card is kind of crappy. You get like 5 $ returns for 3500 points (5 point per dollars spend). You need to spend a lot to get something in Return. The reason why Afterall, I’m still noting it a 4 stars is simple: It’s huge, great café inside for customer to chill, nice location, well situated. Service is great in English and French. Regardless the fact there’s mainly an English store, they still hold a very decent size of french litterature.

You know what? I still like this place. It was never my #1 spot because I always liked Chapters better, but it’s still a bookstore! I love bookstores, browsing section by section, being romanced by covers and flipping through the pages on a leisurely Sunday afternoon.
I’ll admit it, I don’t really buy books at bookstore anymore, I buy them online. With that said, I have always been one to try before I buy, so heading to a brick and mortar to check out the book I want to buy is very important.
Indigo has a nice little café, they have a selection of plates, teas, and cutesy other items that I find unreasonably hard to resist. If I don’t end up buying books here, I almost always walk away with magazines and some thing-​a-​majig that was on the 40% off rack (hello new pillow with ironic phrase screen printed on it).

This Indigo has been my home for two years now.
Maybe it’s not the best bookstore ever, but it has its quirks. It has tons and tons and tons of GOOD books, adorable notebooks, awesome (useless, but awesome) gadgets and things! Most of the employees know their stuff and they’re really nice. You can relax in the middle of downtown, where things are usually not calm, there’s so much things going on outside, but when you step into Indigo, all the stress is away! You can also take a cup of coffee at their café while enjoying the wifi.

The architecture may be nice, have elevator music and all the fancy schmancy stuff but the customer service sucks and swallows. The employees are rude, they ignore the customers or simply turn around without answering a simple question. I was there yesterday and it was impossible to find someone to help me find a book I needed even the computer said there were two copies left.
Thanks God for
…they got 80 $ from me, which means I saved 10 $.
Indigo got 0 $ and probably will not get anything for me in quite a while

The Barnes & Noble of Montréal! I feel like good bookstores are hard to find nowadays with the internet and increasing amount of eReaders around. I have an eReader so in actuality there is no need for me to go to the bookstore. However, I find that I do like to be holding the hard copy of a novel in my hands and Indigo was the place to go!
Indigo had a wide range of book selections and obviously French books as well. The Indigo staff was extremely friendly and helpful. I overheard one of the staff talking to another customer recommending various books and I liked that she was very knowledgeable about her book factoids.
From the café you could enjoy a dessert and cup of coffee while reading a book or watching the busy street below. Overall, Indigo is a great place to go to browse through some books and to sit and enjoy a nice relaxing day.

La sélection de livre en français est correcte pour une librairie qui a un focus plutôt anglophone. Ce que j’ai aimé en particulier de cette librairie est l’attention du staff qui est prêt à vous aider à tout moment. De plus avec de hauts plafonds sont hauts et des rangées de livre bien espacées, ça respire et ça aide à donner un air zen, parfait pour une matinée relaxe à fouiner pour aucune raison en particulier! Le café caché au 2e étage est vraiment bien aussi. Ils ont même des sandwichs faits sur commande en plus de pâtisseries et de petites sucreries. J’aime bien fouiner dans des grands librairies comme celle-​là avec un café à la main et c’était plaisant de voir que ça n’était pas un Starbucks ou un Second Cup, mais bien un café indépendent.

I agree with Charles, we don’t have a lot of options in English bookstores, and this Indigo is quite nice. Architecturally it’s uplifting, with the ground floor opening up with an open circle staircase to a larger second floor at a central corner spot on McGill and St Catherine, two floors with high ceilings, two walls of windows. I mean it’s a chain where all the fonts and colours in all the cities are the same and the actual owner is elsewhere, so I try to support Paragraph up the street on McGill, or Drawn and Quarterly, or the secondhand bookstores instead, but sometimes you just need to be surrounded by more books. I have always found the staff in the fiction and music sections at this Indigo to be super nice, knowledgeable and helpful and not on the sell. The café has good quality coffee and some tasty sandwiches, some of the seating is hard and wobbly, but there are a few big comfy chairs tucked by the giant windows if you get lucky.

It’s just OK, probably because those of us who buy books in English have almost no other choice, it’s Indigo or the other bookstore around the corner: Paragraph… or
. I check regularly for books online and they are listed on their website, but when I check the stock at the closest store, on St Catherine St in my case the books are not available, nor in Laval, nor in Bujumbura, nor anywhere, so I always end up buying my books online because it’s completely useless going to the store… one more thing, they are always changing the locations for each section, so every time I go I have to waste time trying to find what I am looking for because it is never in the same place, and the employees seem to be trained to avoid customers, so we end up roaming all around the bookstore trying to find a book or ordering the books for a later pick-​up because they are not available in-​store.
Save yourself some time, and avoid frustration by ordering from the big A.com

Agoraphobe, vous aurez été prévenus! Non mais c’est la folie dans cette boutique! C’est une carte cadeau qui m’a poussé jusqu’ici. Bön, ok, c’était trois jours avant Noël, mais n’empêche que j’ai rarement vu un établissement aussi achalandé. Et ce n’est pas parce que c’est petit hein… C’est gigantesque! Le choix est incommensurable, je veux dire, ce que vous cherchez, vous risquez de le trouver. L’on y vient essentiellement pour la littérature sous toutes ses formes (francophone et anglophone), bien que l’on puisse se surprendre à dégoter quelques cadeaux relativement intéressants (dont ces petites canettes auxquelles l’on assemble un dispositif électronique ou à énergie solaire).
En tout cas, j’ai trouvé ce que je voulais (La Frousse autour du monde, volume II), mais j’ai bien passé proche de retourner chez-​moi les mains vides; en descendant du 2e étage, là où surgit de nulle part un café bistro toujours bondé, j’ai pris la peine de réaliser comme il faut la longueur de l’interminable file d’attente du rez-​de-​chaussé. Un paquet de tête qui se ramifiait tant bien que mal vers les caisses libres. Ça touchait presque la porte d’entrée… J’ai quand même été surpris de l’efficacité du service. Le roulement était excellent, alors j’ai décidé d’attendre un petit peu et j’ai plongé dans la foule…
Je préfère vraiment les librairies plus intimistes. Ça peut devenir dangereux venir ici; avec autant de propositions alléchantes sur les kiosques reluisants, il est facile de transformer un besoin littéraire en futilité, et ainsi participer à l’hyper consommation culturelle.

My favourite book shop in Montréal. Having gone to McGill, just up the street, I would easily walk down to indigo for a spot of reading and browsing nearly every day!
There are lots of armchairs and windowsills to be had, and with the massive windows surrounding the floor, there is always plenty of light to see by.
The small café, despite not letting you take unpurchased bookes in, does have satisfactory fare. And (!) freely available water! (a first in Montréal)
Definitely a good bookstore to visit. I particularly like their New Age and Fantasy sections. The computer one is geared a little bit too much for newbies and often has out of date books.

I was so glad that I was able to find a bookstore that had both French and English books for sale. I needed to pick up a memento for my sister who has an obsession with the French language, but is only in her first year of studying it. It was nice to be able to find an affordable graphic novel for her, and the bookstore staff was very friendly and helpful. I have to agree with the rather unusual layout, but I did not have difficulty finding the books that I was looking for and noticed that their variety was pretty solid. Great place to go to, pick up a book and relax for a while.

Indigo is part of a Canadian chain of bookstores that span across the country. I had time to kill in downtown Montréal, and this was a pretty nice place to do it (and was familiar, also a plus when you’re alone in a new city and don’t speak the primary language). And the selection of books was good — for a ‘real life’ bookstore :) It was a bit of an odd layout I recall, but the café was nice and a good place to people-​watch/​relax from shopping. Especially in such a busy area of downtown.