Mumbai: Bookstores and bookstore review
By Ujjwal Dey
Well, being in a city known as the “financial capital of India” has its perks. For instance more than one bookstore that caters to the luxury of reading books for fun instead of plethora of stores selling school/college textbooks. Such academic boredom aside, today thanks to the boom in mall-nutrition, there are many bookstores catering to the shoppers at various malls with a wide range of fiction and non-fiction. Some of them have loyal following to ensure success, some have a café to make it more luxurious, some also sell CD/DVD to stay profitable, and some others simply offer so much benefits that you buy something irrespective of being literate. Salespersons are not evaluated here because this is India, its Mumbai. There is sometimes such a crowd at malls that you want to go back home even before you step inside. So salespersons are helpful if you go at odd times like at noon when a handful of people inhabit the store. Otherwise you fend for yourself.
1. Crossword Bookstores: Crossword started as a chain of bookstores with presence in few select cities with prospering economies. With the acquisition of the chain by Shoppers Stop, the book retail chain has seen growth and more success.
This is my favourite bookstore for the convenience it offers. Some of my favourite features here are:
i) Most of the popular novels are available
ii) The books unavailable can be ordered by simply filling a form (requires Crossword membership)
iii) Dial-a-book offer means you can simply call from your home and order a book to be delivered at any address in that city (requires Crossword membership)
iv) Regular discounts and also membership benefits
v) Offers a good choice of Music CDs and Movie DVDs/VCDs
vi) Has a café within the store
vii) Has nice cushioned seats for sitting to browse a few books
They have seasonal sale as well as other event sales. Of course the upto 80% discount means exactly that; it can be upto 80% but most of the good ones are all at 10 to 20% discount only. Membership is easy; if you buy certain amount worth of goods, then the membership is free with it. The points are redeemable on next purchase. Well maybe I am also biased because it is the closest to my home at Nirmal Lifestyle, Mulund (west), Mumbai. There are other Crossword stores in Mumbai as well. A market capturing
total of 16 bookstores in Mumbai.
Shopping online is not a feature as yet added to their website:
http://crosswordbookstores.com/But that doesn’t matter as it has a good presence in the cities it is in and you could order a book by phone or store visit.
2. Strand Bookstall: Well if you don’t recognise this name, then you are neither a Mumbaikar nor a book lover of Mumbai origin. The man behind it, Mr. T.N. Shanbhag started it long back in 1948. He is a Padmashri award winner for service to the reader.
Well, when there was little choice in reading and no choice in good bookstores, Strand Bookstall was the only haven for us all. The discounts are unmatched, even by corporates such as “Barnes and Noble”. Their annual discount sale was the first of its kind with upto 80% off on wide choice of books.
I had started out buying my books here. They even have a number where you can call to buy books unavailable anywhere in India. If it is still in print, they will import it at the best price for you. I remember that nowhere in Mumbai could I find the critically acclaimed author Haruki Murakami’s novels. I phoned Strand Bookstall’s office and placed my long order of 5 popular novels of Murakami. They offered me a quotation, I accepted and had to pay them only on receipt of the books.
Since they don’t deal much in genre novels, you may find the choice restrictive. But for classic literature lovers, the best writers of present and past are shelved here in the old Fort store of Strand Bookstall. Ordering online is also possible:
http://www.strandbookstall.com/3. Landmark bookstores: If there is a bookstore that could make you drool literally with its capacity and quality on offer, it is Landmark. Apparently operating since 1987, only recently has it arrived in Mumbai with a huge store in Infiniti Mall, Andheri (west), Mumbai. Tata Group clearly can make this a successful operation with their financial and technical inputs.
I think if it was any easier travelling to Andheri (west) compared to going to Fort or Mulund, I would call this my favourite bookstore ever. Landmark is easily the best bookstore currently operating in Mumbai. The huge and I mean incredibly huge choice of books, CDs, DVDs is delicious. The range of books offered with the many shelves with genres you can never find elsewhere in Mumbai makes you want to jump around and hug the salesperson. I think it is the only bookstore that had a section for Graphic Novels and stocked it seriously instead of the pathetic surplus import-dump at other bookstores. Even the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres are represented with painstaking groundwork at getting the best of those genres.
Clearly there is a great reader behind the stocking of such a good collection of books.
Also the salespeople are as friendly as in Crosswords.
A major plus point for Landmark is that apart from quality choice at competitive prices, they have an even more extensive offering online at their website. So you could do the shopping at the comfort of your home.
So
http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/ is the homepage for book shopping for you. I look forward for Landmark to grow and set trends in bookstores and book-shopping.
Happy Hunting !!!
