Good old Landmark

I went on a buying spree of kids books in Chennai. I started out with the Oxford Bookstore on Haddows Road. It opened a while ago but I hadn't found the time to visit as yet, plus I had a gift certificate that I needed to redeem before it expired.

Well the store is supposedly 3 storeys but one storey was a cafe and the second was the cashier. So that left only the 3rd storey which was approximately 600 sq ft. The selection of kids books was extremely poor especially for pre-schoolers. The staff were completely incompetent. The cashier had no idea how to work the register, nor how to use my gift certificate. The remaining 4 guys on the staff - 2 were giggling over some book, one guy was scratching himself and the 4th was browsing magazines!! It was ridiculous. I spent 45 minutes just waiting at the register!

From there I went to the Crosswords bookstore on Venkatnarayana Road in T Nagar. They too had a tiny bit of floor space, a miserable selection of books, and were bizarre-ly incompetent at the checkout line. I was the only one there and yet no one even asked if I needed help or cared the least bit about expediting my bill. I spent another 1/2 hour trying to get my bill. They too had a whole section devoted to a cafe!

Needless to say, I was extremely disappointed. As my friend wisely said "the new bookstores are all style and no substance".

It was back to good old Landmark, where I found everything I was looking for. The only thing I feel Landmark should change is their huge amount of time, energy and money devoted to selling knick-knacks like costume jewelry and random "gift articles". But then, maybe the teenagers these days need a place to go buy sweet-nothings for their significant others. Landmark's selection of books, CDs and DVDs though is top-notch.

The other small but significantly impressive stores are Giggles (in the Taj Connemara hotel) and the book shop at the Taj Coromandel hotel. Tiny stores that ooze substance!