The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.
~James Bryce. The same holds true for a bookshop too.
When Landmark opened its first store in Mumbai at Infinity Andheri, I for one being a book lover for thrilled The first visit left you craving for more. I was thrilled that they did not compromise on their collection of books for the sake of music or toys like most book stores do.
So many years later that still holds true. Beooks have, even today not been compromised for the faster selling range of toys and music.
Yes, they do have a wonderful collection of music CDs, Movie VCDs and DVDs and BlueRays too. Yes, they have quite a fantastic stationery section too, but the icing on the cake is that all these items have their well demarcated spaces without the shopper feeling overwhelmed at finding too may items cramped into too small a space.
A vast and varied collection of books just urges you to browse. The stack upon numerous stack of books acts like a magnet keeping you riveted in the store for hours together. There are no irritating sales staff underfoot at all times but if you do need assistance all you have to do is ask and they are ever willing to assist you to locate a book or order it for you if it’s not in stock.
I have personally asked for difficult to locate books and DVDs and though it may have taken a bit of time Landmark has always managed to deliver in the end.
Very thoughtfully, the children’s books section is kept close to the toys section and at a distance from the adult books so that children too are free to browse through their respective sections without being a disturbance to the adults.
The variety and quality of toys is as good not better than most reputed toy shops in Bombay. The very same holds true for their music /movies section too.
Very often they have some great discount schemes on books as well as music and movies. Their loyalty program is not very impressive but no true book lover ever bothers about that though.
Although there is no compulsion to buy, it is a very very rare blue moon when you leave this store empty handed or not longing to return for more.