Chapters

Chapters is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Chapters Inc. was created when Coles and SmithBooks, Canada's two largest book chains at the time, merged in 1994. SmithBooks was acquired from Federal Industries and Coles was acquired from Southam Inc. Canadian General Capital and Pathfinder Capital bought these two chains with the intention of building large-format book superstores comparable to those of the American bookstore chains Barnes and Noble and Borders.

The new company was officially created in April 1995 and the first two book superstores were opened in November 1995. The original superstores were located in Burlington, Ontario and Burnaby, British Columbia and can know be found throughout Canada and parts of the US. Chapters provides chairs and couches for their customers, as well as built in Starbucks coffee shops, and normally discourage the reading of books inside the store (but you might need to purchase them first)