Indigo hosts its Grand Opening celebrations this weekend with free events for the whole family.

TORONTO, Oct. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Indigo (TSX: IDG), the world's first cultural department store, announces today the official opening of its first United States location at The Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey. The 30,000 square foot store is dedicated to inspiring, informing and indulging the community with a rich assortment of books, exclusive in-house designed lifestyle products, beautiful gifts, and toys, all carefully sourced to enrich the lives of its customers. Indigo's assortment is organized around several shops including Books, IndigoKids, IndigoBaby, Wellness, Home, Joy of the Table, A Room of Her Own, and IndigoPaper. A destination for the whole family, customers can look forward to grand opening weekend events October 27^th and 28^th, including arts and crafts, interactive activities, a photobooth, live music, and more.

Heather Reisman founded the publicly-traded Canadian company Indigo Books & Music in 1996 bringing a lifelong passion for books to the retail environment with the goal of creating a cultural department store for booklovers. Since the launch of its first store in 1997, Indigo has grown to become Canada's pre-eminent lifestyle retailer and leading bookstore with over 200 locations, while continuing to innovate its offerings and invest in communities. Recognized as one of Canada's top companies for employee satisfaction, Indigo's opening creates more than 120 new jobs in Short Hills.

"We're thrilled to be launching our first US store," said Heather Reisman, Indigo's CEO and Chief Booklover. "Indigo has always been a platform to add value and joy to our customers' lives, both through our product offerings and our unique experience. Our ambition is to enrich the lives of our customers each time they interact with us. We are excited to be testing our concept in one of the largest retail markets in the world and joining the Short Hills community."

Acting as a local gathering place, Indigo Short Hills provides a welcoming destination for books, gifts, and toys with a customer-first shopping environment. Indigo's staff are experts, providing personalized decision support and service. The warm and modern store is designed to inspire and delight, offering a place to unwind and unplug. In addition to Indigo's proprietary products, the store offers a unique selection of the most sought-after speciality brands including S'well, Herschel, Casper, Kid Made Modern, and more. 

Coming soon to Indigo Short Hills is CaféIndigo, a unique concept that offers a custom, locally-sourced curated menu, including La Colombe's full range of beverages. Customers will find a variety of delicious and healthy options, along with kid-friendly items, that can be enjoyed in the café or taken away.

Indigo provides an offering built on the Company's core beliefs:

• A destination for kids big and small, IndigoKids is committed to being a partner to parents and families as they care for the development of the child and their creative potential. IndigoKids offers the books, crafts, products, and services that parents and families look for to enrich their child's love of reading, healthy curiosity, learning, exploration, and growth.
• Indigo believes that self-care is essential to overall well-being. The Wellness Shop offers an exclusive curation of essentials grounded in three pillars: nourish, sleep, and mindful meditation. At every stage of the wellness journey, customers will find inspiring and supporting items including health and well-being books, diffusers, meditation essentials, sleep aids, and so much more.
• Food and cooking can bring together friends and family for moments of connection. Indigo is here to help customers create warm and inviting tablescapes, with the cookbooks needed to prepare and eat real food, and the serve ware and the inspiration to make moments around the table joyful.
• In a busy and fast-paced world, reading books can provide a moment to unplug and unwind. Indigo's expansive selection connects customers to authors and ideas who inspire their reading life.

Grand Opening Events: To celebrate the opening of Indigo Short Hills the public is invited to attend a special weekend of family-friendly grand opening events on October 27- 28 including:

Saturday, October 27

• 11:00 am – Read, question and think with Andrea Beaty's bestselling titles, Ada Twist, Scientist, Iggy Peck, Architect, and Rosie Revere, Engineer
• 12:00 pm – Create a PAW Patrol® craft including a Marshall fire badge!
• 12:30 pm – Get ready for Halloween by making a spider out of LEGO®
• 1:00 pm – Enjoy demonstrations of some of Hasbro®'s top toys and games including Playdoh, Jenga, Lost Kitties and more!
• 1:00 pm – Take home a personalized poem created on-the-spot by a Typewriter Poet
• 2:00 pm – Get in the Halloween spirit with Klutz® Face Painting
• 3:00 pm – Create adorable animals out of egg cartons using the Klutz® Jr. Egg Carton Animals Kit
• 4:00 pm – Make memories with the Fujifilm® Photobooth
• 4:00 – 6:00 pm – Enjoy local live music

Sunday October 28

• 11:00 am – Enjoy a Llama Llama^© Storytime and costume character visit
• 12:00 pm – Create floating island bath toys with Sago Mini™
• 12:30 pm – Learn the ABCs with the new ABC Backpack from LeapFrog®
• 1:00 pm – Enjoy a Melissa & Doug® Water Paint Pad activity
• 1:00 – 3:00 pm – Discover the future with a tarot card reader
• 2:00 pm – Create beautiful prints with the Klutz® Stencil Art Kit
• 2:00 – 4:00 pm – Enjoy local live music
• 3:00 pm – Take home a personalized poem created on-the-spot by a Typewriter Poet

For a full calendar of upcoming events, and more information on Indigo, please visit Indigo.com.

About Indigo

Indigo is the world's first Cultural Department Store – a physical and digital meeting place inspired by and filled with books, music, art, ideas, and beautifully designed lifestyle products. Indigo believes in real books, in living life fully and generously, in being kind to each other and that stories – big and little – connect us.

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SOURCE Indigo Books & Music Inc.