It was criticized, however, for several reasons. Canada's first book superstore, Toronto's World's Biggest Bookstore, once part of the Coles chain, was also owned by Chapters and had continued to operate under its original name.Ĭhapters grew quickly.

However, the SmithBooks, the Book Company, and Classic Bookshops names have been gradually phased and locations rebranded as Coles stores in recent years. The company became Canada's largest book retailer, with 77 superstores branded as Chapters and more than 280 mall-based stores under the names Coles, SmithBooks (formerly the Canadian branch of W H Smith), Classic Bookshops, the Book Company, and Active Minds. Chapters provided chairs and couches for their customers, as well as Starbucks coffee shops, and did not discourage reading inside the store. Chapters built large box stores with a much larger product selection. Previously, companies like Coles and Smithbooks had many small stores. Ĭhapters quickly changed the face of Canada's book selling industry. The original superstores were in Burlington, Ontario and Burnaby, British Columbia. The new company was created in April 1995 and the first two book superstores were opened in November 1995. Canadian General Capital and Pathfinder Capital bought these two chains to build large-format book superstores comparable to those of the American bookstore chains Barnes & Noble and Borders. SmithBooks was acquired from Federal Industries and Coles was acquired from Southam Inc. was created in 1994 when founder and CEO, Lawrence Stevenson led the buyout and merger of Canada's two largest book chains at the time: Coles and SmithBooks (formerly the Canadian division of U.K. Chapters' former Downtown Montreal store in the Castle Building in April 2006, eight years before closing. Inside Chapters in Markham, Ontario in October 2008. As of July 2017, it operated 89 superstores under the banners Chapters and Indigo, and 122 small format stores under the banners Coles, Indigospirit, SmithBooks and The Book Company. Formerly a separate company competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001. is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Chapters, the big box bookstore banner is owned by Indigo.Ĭhapters Inc.

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