3 ms·

Agreed. The amount of books at these stores has drastically dropped, and they rarely have what I'm looking for anymore. The crap they do have is now devoted to

by foldor 7y ago

Agreed. The amount of books at these stores has drastically dropped, and they rarely have what I'm looking for anymore. The crap they do have is now devoted to targeting a demographic I don't belong to. It's hard to argue with their success, but it's just no longer a store for me anymore.

bryanlarsen 7y ago
Agreed. It's probably a good strategy for them, but I'm no longer the target market; I've lost my last refuge at the mall.
bluedino 7y ago
What kind of crap? Is it like B&N where half the products are toys, trinkets, and random Harry Potter memorabilia?
- derefr 7y ago
  Pillows, throw blankets, candles, incense, stuffed animals, ornaments, coffee mugs. Indigo is essentially now a chain selling “the reading experience”—everything you need on/near a couch (or bed, or bathtub, or dining table) to have a comfortable day sitting around reading a book. Including the book itself, of course. These (both the accessories and the books themselves) are marketed as “gifts for people who read.” They also sell some card/board games (and even, oddly, a rather large collection of tarot card decks), stationery (notebooks, journals, calendars), some greeting cards (but not a whole aisle of them), and a few other things that aren’t quite accessories to books, but make more sense from another interpretation of their paradigm: “expensive, medium-to-high-quality paper products that nobody would be likely to buy for themselves, and which therefore make good gifts when you want to make it clear that you didn’t just buy them something from the dollar store and/or Walmart.” In other words: bougie paper products. Oh, and—separately again—their childrens’ section, as well as containing books, contains toys, but only those that could (perhaps loosely) be referred to as “learning toys.” Indigo wants to supplant traditional toy stores as the destination for adults trying to shop for a gift for a child, with a different approach—rather than stocking the toys the kids want, they stock the toys that adults think would most benefit kids to play with. If you recall the kids’ section of early ThinkGeek—before they became a HotTopic-alike “cultural branding” store—it has that same kind of feel: gifts you could get your niece/nephew, that would both make the kid excited, but also make their parents appreciate the purchase (rather than resenting it for how much it’s distracting the kid from their studies or, potentially, damaging their house.)

by foldor 7y ago

bryanlarsen 7y ago

Agreed. It's probably a good strategy for them, but I'm no longer the target market; I've lost my last refuge at the mall.

bluedino 7y ago

What kind of crap? Is it like B&N where half the products are toys, trinkets, and random Harry Potter memorabilia?

derefr 7y ago
Pillows, throw blankets, candles, incense, stuffed animals, ornaments, coffee mugs. Indigo is essentially now a chain selling “the reading experience”—everything you need on/near a couch (or bed, or bathtub, or dining table) to have a comfortable day sitting around reading a book. Including the book itself, of course. These (both the accessories and the books themselves) are marketed as “gifts for people who read.” They also sell some card/board games (and even, oddly, a rather large collection of tarot card decks), stationery (notebooks, journals, calendars), some greeting cards (but not a whole aisle of them), and a few other things that aren’t quite accessories to books, but make more sense from another interpretation of their paradigm: “expensive, medium-to-high-quality paper products that nobody would be likely to buy for themselves, and which therefore make good gifts when you want to make it clear that you didn’t just buy them something from the dollar store and/or Walmart.” In other words: bougie paper products. Oh, and—separately again—their childrens’ section, as well as containing books, contains toys, but only those that could (perhaps loosely) be referred to as “learning toys.” Indigo wants to supplant traditional toy stores as the destination for adults trying to shop for a gift for a child, with a different approach—rather than stocking the toys the kids want, they stock the toys that adults think would most benefit kids to play with. If you recall the kids’ section of early ThinkGeek—before they became a HotTopic-alike “cultural branding” store—it has that same kind of feel: gifts you could get your niece/nephew, that would both make the kid excited, but also make their parents appreciate the purchase (rather than resenting it for how much it’s distracting the kid from their studies or, potentially, damaging their house.)