New Indigo store is a book lovers delight
Published Tuesday July 29th, 2008
Shopping Business opening today on east side presents books and other items in a different way
JEFF DUCHARME
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL C5
SAINT JOHN - If it weren't for the towering ceilings and industrial ventilation ducts, one might think they were walking through the brightly coloured rooms of a book-loving uncle's country-estate library. Thousands upon thousands of books line the walls and the aisles, but it's the way the books and other items are presented that make the store different.
Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal
Julie McGoldrick, general manager for Indigo East Point, holds up books published by local photographer Rob Roy and local author David Goss at the entrance of the new Indigo store at East Point Shopping. The store opens to the public today.
Inside the doors of the new Indigo store at East Point Shopping, it first appears like many book stores. A great room welcomes visitors, and the tables and displays of books make visitors pause and take a breath. But as one winds their way through the various shelves of books, they realize they're walking through doorways and into rooms, each with a distinctively different theme and feel.
"It's all your shops within shops - destinations," said Julie McGoldrick, the store's general manager, during a tour of the store Monday.
The store opens today.
Each of the rooms is connected like they would be in a house and devoted to a particular theme or age group.
"They've got curved walls, so it really feels like a home environment," said McGoldrick.
The design of the store is the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada and only the second in the country after a store in Quebec. The design won a 2007 award from the International Council of Shopping Centres for its groundbreaking look and function.
The store will employ 35 people and packs books, magazines, music, decor items, stationery, toys, gourmet food items and gifts into 18,000 square feet.
Turning the corner into one of her favourite rooms, McGoldrick points out everything for the home and office from funky book ends to classy items for the desk to greeting cards.
"They don't have to go anywhere else," she said.
Some 45,000 books line the walls of the store and the magazine section has titles that seemingly go on forever - a browser's paradise.
But it's the area devoted to children, teens and tweens that really stands out. The rooms are bright and speak to children and youth rather than talking down to them. The colours are bright and the rooms have an almost castle-like airiness about them. Kids don't want to leave and parents only wish they were kids again.
"It makes them feel the room has been designed for them," said McGoldrick.
High up in the ceiling, the graphics have been designed from a baby-in-a-stroller point of view. The bright colours and large polka dots are designed to keep baby, who is always looking up, occupied and smiling.
Whether it be stuffed toys such as a three-headed dragon puppet or a board game, the toys have been picked carefully.
"We're really trying to focus the toys around the child's cognitive development," said McGoldrick.
But the old favourites can still be found - Spirograph, Barrel of Monkeys, Rubik's Cube and even Tiddly Winks are on the shelves along with modern-day favourites. There's also a Thomas the Tank Engine table for kids to play on and plasma carts for little ones to whiz around on.
For the teens and tweens, there's Stephenie Meyer's collection of books that has become all the rage with a special midnight launch of her new book planned for Friday. The launch will be a masquerade theme in keeping with her book that tells the story of a girl's heart torn between her love for a vampire and a werewolf.
"Teens and tweens are really into it, as are adults," said McGoldrick.
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