Indigo, until now the largest bookseller in Canada, is clearly on the way to a whole new world of retail business. It has announced once again that it will carry fewer books and move into consumer goods such as housewares and toys. A further indication of how stressed the firm must be to move out of books is shown in its decision to cut in half the evaluation period for a book's sales down to 45 days. It's upsetting a lot of publishers, especially the small ones. But it also raises the question of how Indigo intends to compete in a whole new business. Its a field with established specialty businesses like Main Course and Homefront, not to mention Ashely's. Then there are the American cut-rate boxes like Homesense. Is there a future for huge high-rent downtown stores in this sector? Time will tell of course but in the end, it's clear the Indigo concept, first modelled on now defunct competitors like Borders, is gone for good.
