Coles was a Canadian

bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

chain owned by

Indigo Books and Music Indigo Books & Music Inc., known as "Indigo" and stylized "!ndigo", is Canada's only major English-language bookstore chain. It is Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten provinces and one terr ...

. Coles currently serves as Indigo's brand for small-scale bookstores in locations such as

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

s. Some locations are operated as SmithBooks, and the company has recently begun to open selected small-format locations as "IndigoSpirit".First Canadian Place store directory

History

In 1940, two brothers,

Carl Cole Carl and Jack Cole, born Carl Kolofsky and Isadore Kolofsky, were American brothers who created the successful bookstore chain Coles (bookstore), Coles as well as the world-famous publication Coles Notes. Carl (died 1994) and Jack (May 4, 1920 ...

and Jack Cole, opened their first bookstore in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, near to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

Bloor Street Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Parkw ...

near

Spadina Avenue Spadina Avenue (, less commonly ) is one of the most prominent streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running through the western section of downtown, the road has a very different character in different neighbourhoods. Spadina Avenue runs south ...

.Indigo History
Prior to opening the store they had operated a "pushcart", buying up textbooks at the end of the school year and reselling them in the fall. At the age of 11, the Coles were living in foster homes in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and eventually

. With the little amount of money they had, they were able to open their first store (paying rent daily as they could not afford the monthly rent payments). With no retail experience, the Cole brothers turned their store into what was once Canada's largest bookstore chain. Jack and Carl Cole are also responsible for inventing

Coles Notes Coles Notes are student guides to literature, published in Canada. The Coles bookstore first published Coles Notes in 1948. The first title published was on the French novella ''Colomba'' by Prosper Mérimée.Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

.Link
via

. Jack and Carl hired someone to translate the book and sold over 1,000 copies. The original Coles Notes were typed up by Mrs. Alcorn, and produced by mimeograph machine. (Mrs. Alcorn stayed with Coles Bookstores as long as it remained in the hands of the Coles brothers.) Coles Notes have sold over 80,000,000 copies worldwide, and served as the foundation for the similar

Cliffs Notes CliffsNotes are a series of student study guides. The guides present and create literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company cl ...

which are published in the U.S. Jack Cole was an avid collector of Canadian books, and in the late 1960s started reprinting affordable, paperbound facsimile editions of scarce and rare Canadian history titles, such as George M. Grant's ''Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming's expedition through Canada in 1872''. Previous to the Cole's edition a history buff or student either had to pay a premium for the original edition if it could be found, have access to the rare book collection at a major library, or buy an expensive limited-edition reprint from a historical society or university press. Not missing a trick, the Coles established ownership of critical trade names by establishing and registering their use in Canada. They published books under the banner of

Waldenbooks Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain, from 1995 as a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a ...

, so when K-Mart wanted to introduce their captive book chain into Canada, they found that "Waldenbooks" was already registered and in use. K-Mart was free to set up bookstores, just not Waldenbooks. They followed a similar ploy by having stores do business under the "Borders" name, as a blocking move. In addition to the flagship brand, known for many years as "Coles - the Book People!", the company operated the self-proclaimed

World's Biggest Bookstore The World's Biggest Bookstore was a bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at 20 Edward St, just north of the Toronto Eaton Centre and the Atrium on Bay. Operating from 1980 until 2014, the three-storey store covered 64,000 square feet and was n ...

in downtown Toronto, as well as two other bookstore banners, Active Minds and The Book Company.Southam Inc. sells Coles to SmithBooks
Southam press release, April 11, 1995 In 1978, Jack and Carl sold Coles to Southam Inc.Link
via

. In April

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, Southam resold the company to

Pathfinder Capital Pathfinder may refer to: Businesses * Pathfinder Energy Services, a division of Smith International * Pathfinder Press, a publisher of socialist literature Computing and information science * Path Finder, a Macintosh file browser * Pathfinder ( ...

, which one year earlier had acquired Coles' main rival, SmithBooks.Alternate Link
via

.Link
via

. That chain consisted of the Canadian former operations of British bookstore chain

W H Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

(1950-1989), which had first been sold to Canadian owners in 1989. The merged company,

Chapters Inc. Chapters Inc. is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a separate company competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001. As of July 2017, it ...

, opened Canada's first two book superstores under the "Chapters" brand in November 1995. The smaller-format bookstores retained their existing names, but over time many of these locations have been converted to the Coles banner. A handful of SmithBooks stores continue to operate as of late 2008, but even in these cases staff uniforms and shopping bags bear the "Coles" name. Indigo purchased Chapters, and in turn Coles, in 2001. A number of Coles locations continue to operate in Canada as of 2013, primarily in suburban shopping malls, though many have been closed in recent years, especially if located in close proximity to an Indigo or Chapters location, with others converted into IndigoSpirit stores.

Expansion into the United States

After dominating the Canadian book market by the early 1970s, Coles found little opportunity for further growth within Canada and Jack Coles decided to explore further expansion south of the border by opening new "Coles - the Book People!" stores in the rapidly expanding United States market. The first store in the United States was opened in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, in 1973.Link
via

. By 1980, there were 56 stores in the United States with more being opened.Link
via

. In 1987, Southam decided to sell or close the U.S. stores since the stores were not generating enough profit.Link
via

. A few months later 52 U.S. stores were sold to K-Mart and were converted into

stores.Alternate Link
via

.Link
via

References

External links

Chapters.Indigo.ca
Indigo Books and Music Retail companies established in 1940

History

Expansion into the United States

References

Further reading

External links