World’s Biggest Bookstore (20 Edward St.) is celebrating a quarter-century of not being the world’s biggest bookstore – try the main Barnes & Noble in NYC. Moreover, the converted bowling alley near Yonge and Dundas hasn’t factored into the area’s revitalization, and it’s unimaginable that they’d bother trying. A campaign in the late-’90s staked an Honest Ed’s-meets-Hooters positioning for the WBB relative to the latte-laden houses of mahogany developed by parent company, Chapters Inc.; unfortunately, the slogan We Have Places To Sit: But Why Aggravate Your Hemorrhoids? lost its cachet once Chapters was swallowed by Indigo, who scaled back the browsing chairs. And while World’s Biggest presumably continues to permit infinite page-turning in the erotic photography section, the store lost its groove once they started stocking enough CD-Roms, VHS tapes and books on cassette to fill all the land in Michigan. This weekend’s 25th birthday celebration involves appearances from locals MG Vassanji, Paul Quarrington and Joy Fielding, yet who among the regular clientele even know who they are? The store remains ideal for post-satanic Anne Rice‘s book signing lineup (November 16 at 6 p.m.), though authors better suited to the WBB aesthetic show up at the Eaton Centre Indigo instead – Chris "Get A Life" Elliott (canceled tonight, sadly) and ZZ Top beard Billy Gibbons (November 16 at noon). You’d think a store promoted as carrying Books Priced So Low Even People Who Don’t Read Too Good Is Buying Them would want to live up to its own self-image.
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These days it’s hard for people to sell books unless the atmosphere is just right and so I guess World’s Biggest is the exception to the rule – I applied to work there once but was secretly relieved when it didn’t happen, as all the lights would have got to me, not to mention the colors. And the metal bookcases, or whatever they are called. And so on & so forth. The place is just short of a warehouse, but I imagine some people want an extremely well-lit place instead of some coffee house that happens to have a bookstore attached to it.
Sounds like some people are a)more interested in the “cultural department bookstores” that have “celebrity authors” rather than good quality authors, and b)bitter that they didn’t get a job there.
I prefer bookstores to sell books, and not candles. I prefer bookstores to have staff that is knowledgeable rather than just there to shelve the books.
And btw, they were actually the world’s biggest bookstore until just recently. Look them up in the Guiness Book of World Records a few years back. (And the Barnes & Noble in Texas is actually bigger than the one in NYC.)
Wow you people really are opinionated. Well this store has selection I am sick of these darn tinny shops that do not have what you want and tell you they can order it, no wait go to the other end of town and get it there. That is just stupid if I am buying from a physical location it better be one stop. Whom ever wrote this article did not do any research it properly and obviously has a biased opinion.
It was unquestionably the biggest bookstore in the world when it first opened in 1980
World’s Biggest still claims the title on the basis that it depends on how “biggest” is defined.
It was the first book “superstores” although it retains its unique name, its stock, distribution and advertising are closely integrated with the Chapters and Indigo chains.
Noted having over 20 kilometers of bookshelves
Barnes & Noble Bookstore at 105 Fifth Avenue at 18th Street, New York City, USA. It covers 14,330 sq m (154,250 sq ft) 1999