Indigo to become a major player in toy market?

[ficbot]

Interesting article in today's Star:
http://www.thestar.com/business/comp...for-toy-market

Apparently, Indigo is planning to devote the shelf space its growing e-shift will free up, to toys. They don't plan to compete with Wal Mart or Toys R Us but rather to compete with the high-end educational toy stores like Scholar's Choice or a local boutique called Mastermind which is very popular. Think of it like 'what sort of toys would an educated person who reads want to buy' sort of selection

It's interesting to me because I had long been proposing that major book chains WOULD continue in the digital age and would still sell paper books books, but that cross-marketed products would come to play a bigger role in the retail profit margin. So, for example, the bookstore-as-coffee-shop. Or stationary shop (I lived in a town that had this already---one wall of the 100 best books as voted on by readers of a major newspaper, another wall of best-sellers, and then nothing but stationary products). I wondered if some book stores might branch into stuff like cooking products to leverage the cookbook which I think will continue to be popular in paper.

Well, Indigo appears to have chosen its direction, and it's the toy market. Who would have thought that of all industries to worry about the e-shift affecting them, that something as tangible and non-E as toy sellers would have to worry?

[taming]

It's not just eBook sales that are competing with Chapters-Indigo. Folks are buying their "best sellers" at Costco, Walmart, and even the big grocery chains--often at prices Indigo can't (or doesn't) match.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ficbot

It's interesting to me because I had long been proposing that major book chains WOULD continue in the digital age and would still sell paper books books, but that cross-marketed products would come to play a bigger role in the retail profit margin. So, for example, the bookstore-as-coffee-shop. Or stationary shop (I lived in a town that had this already---one wall of the 100 best books as voted on by readers of a major newspaper, another wall of best-sellers, and then nothing but stationary products).

Do you perhaps mean "stationEry" (paper, envelopes, etc) rather than "stationAry" (not moving)? I was a little confused when you talked about a "stationary shop" - most shops are stationary .

[Latinandgreek]

Interesting. Although I liked Chapters more when it was more book and less "non-book". I wonder if the toys will be sold at Chapters as well as Indigo, or just in the Indigo stores.

[GA Russell]

Borders not long ago announced a Build-a-Bear section.