Chapters

my all time favorite place in ottawa. i just go in, grab a hot chocolate, a book and just go chill upstairs. the staff is so friendly and helpful, the environnement is amazing.

Since I went to my first Chapters when I was 11 years old, I have been hooked! The smell as I enter the store (sigh books and coffee!), the thousands of unread books just waiting to be explored, and within the last few years a really interesting home décor line. I have spent many, many hours perusing Chapters and as this location is now closest to where I live, I have made it a regular stop. The staff are always helpful, friendly, and not pushy. Walking into my local Chapters is like a happy walk down memory lane.

Ah, Chapters each location is identical yet unique in its own way. The Rideau Chapters gets some *colourful* customers but it is still one of my favourite places to chill. What other store lets you sit and use their merchandise without buying anything? There are even tables and chairs set up so you can read comfortably with your Starbucks coffee.
This location is usually quite busy so when you are buying things there tends to be a bit of a line, but it moves quickly. Staff seem willing to help, but don’t follow you around the store. The wi-​fi is free and strong. The store is generally clean. There is a large selection of house and home items. My personal favorite section is the clearance racks with items under $ 5, 10, 15 and $ 20 (prices books, home items, cards, etc. are set by publishers and Chapters corp. so I will not comment on them).
This location has become a Landmark for the downtown area and deservedly so.

It’s Chapters. At this point, they have the formula down pat. Starbucks? Check. Books? Yup. Magazines? Of course. Gift items? Why the heck not? If you’ve been to one Chapters, you’ve pretty much been to them all. So if you are looking for a nice, comfortable, and familiar spot regardless of where you are? Chapters.

I visited this store in June to buy a pre-​ordered book for a course.
The on-​line price was listed as $ 25, and they wanted $ 38. I asked why the difference? The answer was surprising. Our store and the online store are separate operations!
I then wrote to Heather for an explanation of this unsavory practice. It has been one month, and no reply.
Why does Chapters support showrooming?

This store is now more useful as a hang-​out for downtown people than as a real bookstore. The coffee-​mugs, diaries, other household items and kitsch in general have taken precedence over the books in recent years. This was only to be expected given the popularity of e-​readers. Sometimes I can find a book I am looking for but more often not. The staff do their best but are helpless in the face of the owner’s indifference.

Le Chapters n’a rien de spécial comme librairie à part pour le fait qu’ils ont pas mal de tout. Des livres à propos de tous les sujets, autant en anglais qu’en français, des jouets pour enfants, des cartes de souhait, des décorations pour la maison et des cadeaux pour plusieurs occasions. Toutefois, ce Chapters est tellement bien situé qu’il est presque impossible de né pas y aller si on habite dans la région. C’est le point de rencontre de plusieurs et donc ça n’est pas inhabituel de s’y donner rendez-​vous «dans la section des magazines!» Seul petit bémol, pour une raison quelconque, à plusieurs reprises, mon cellulaire né fonctionne simplement pas quand j’y suis, ou bien il coupe en plein milieu de conversation, ou bien je répond et la personne à l’autre bout né m’entends pas du tout. C’est un peu étrange. Aussi, bien que le prix des livres et pas mal standards, ils sont quand même un peu cher. Allez plutôt dans la section à rabais qui est énorme pour y trouver des trésors qui en valent la peine pour aussi peu que 2 ou 3 dollars!

This is a very large Chapters located in the heart of downtown Ottawa. It’s located at the corner of Sussex and Rideau across the street from the Rideau Centre and right beside the Byward Market.
The store like every chapters I’ve been to has an attached Starbucks and has a large selection of books, magazines, multimedia and various home and exercise items. They have a pretty large selection of books and have 2 levels.
There are a few places to sit in and around the store and you will see people reading all over the store. I don’t think anyone from the staff has never helped me there but I usually know what I’m looking for when I drop in. I’ve never seen the staff bother anyone that has been sitting in the store reading. I’ve seen people sit in the same spot for hours!
The selection is good and if you are not in a rush you can go to their website to order the book you want at a slight discount or you can purchase a Chapters member card which entitles you to more discounts through the year. If you want ever more savings you can probably go to
to search for the book as well and see if it’s available.

This is the largest Chapters location in Ottawa that I know of. It’s pretty popular, seeing as how it has such a prime location — right downtown on Rideau.
I hadn’t been here in a long time until recently. A small group and I were volunteering downtown for a non-​profit organization on a terribly cold and rainy day, and we needed a place to discuss our game plan, as well as put some educational material together. A couple of my group members remembered that they had some seating areas in Chapters, and it would be a much better place to talk and work than the Rideau Centre food court.
We walked into Chapters and took the escalator upstairs, only to discover that they no longer had the couches they used to. One of the employees told us that they just completely removed them. There were people sitting and reading all over the store, particularly near the windows. We decided to just post up on the ground near some of the shelves. We were there for at least 20 minutes, maybe half an hour or so, putting together cards and ribbons. We didn’t buy anything, but we weren’t bothering anyone, and even though a few different Chapters employees passed by us, we were never asked to leave, and we really appreciated it!

Chapters est une grande enseigne qui vend des livres et d’autres objets de papeterie. Vu comme ça on dirait que je parle d’une fnac ou d’un virgin mais non… c’est beaucoup mieux !
Déjà ils sont spécialisé que dans les livres, il y a des livres à pertes de vue, sur beaucoup de thème différents et dans plusieurs langues (même une partie en québécois). Ensuite la décoration des chapters est très chaleureuse (surtout dans ce Chapters là) et il y a pas mal de banc et de fauteuils, donc on peut prendre un livre ou un magazine et commencer à le feuilleter ou même le lire sans qu’un vigile vienne pour nous dire qu’on a pas le droit de s’asseoir et de lire ! Cela est vraiment très agréable. Le seul hic que je peux trouver à Chapters, les prix sont élevés je trouve… Mais bon quand on a besoin d’un livre c’est pratique.
En plus après avoir acheté ses livres on peut se rendre dans le starbuck (car qui dit Chapters dit Starbucks quand on est au Canada) et lire tranquillement son livre dans un fauteil tout un sirotant un café (ou un chocolat viennois pour ma part).
Au moins comme il n’y a pas de pression pour qu’on achète, on peut très bien aller dans un Chapters pour attendre ou juste pour passer le temps.