The regulars at Indigo and Chapters aren't taking Heather Reisman's decision to replace their comfortable sofas with hard chairs sitting down.
The chief executive officer of Indigo Books & Music Inc., which took over Chapters a year ago, said yesterday that the sofas were such a nuisance that they were leading to situations similar to those Monica Lewinsky found herself in with former U.S. president Bill Clinton.
She also told a breakfast at the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management that her employees had complained about the excessive use of the seating "causing a mess in the stores and a lot of stress" for staff.
She acknowledged that "hundreds" of people had written to the recently created Web site http://www.SaveOurSofas.org in protest of the sofas' removal.
This isn't the first time that Ms. Reisman has found herself in the centre of a storm since she and her husband tycoon Gerald Schwartz bought control of Chapters and merged it with her Indigo chain.
Late last fall, Ms. Reisman banned Hitler's Mein Kampf from her chain of about 90 superstores and 175 mall stores. In response, Ms. Reisman said yesterday she received 11,000 letters from people expressing views for and against the banning.
She used the examples of the sofa and Mein Kampf protests to point out how much people care about their book stores. In a business sense, she added, "that is a huge opportunity."
Henry Chinaski, organizer of last month's Montreal protest of the no-sofa policy, said in a telephone interview that people from across the country are joining the movement.
He said a protest is being planned for Toronto where Indigo is based.
He has watched warily as Chapters and Indigo pushed independent booksellers out of business and, more recently, dropped discounts, shrunk inventory and now, removed sofas, he said. "When our comfort is being threatened, it's time to speak out."
At 24, Mr. Chinaski, who describes himself as an activist and Web designer, reads fiction and self-help books but is now buying them from U.S.-based Amazon.com and small book shops.
Others feel strongly about losing the sofas, too.
In an email to SaveOurSofas, Tom Buchanan says the sofas have become "a social gathering point for those of us whom [sic]run with the more intellectual crowd . . . I can't tell you the amount of interesting people I have met sitting in the very chairs that they [Indigo/Chapters]want to remove."
Still, there are those who support the sofa removal. "There is a place to read comfortably, or study," writes Chuck Shrier, a regular Chapters shopper. "IT IS CALLED THE LIBRARY!!!!"
Ms. Reisman declined to elaborate on her comments after the breakfast, although she said some "soft seating" as well as hard chairs will take the place of the sofas.
Indigo spokeswoman Tracy Nesdoly said later that the sofas were costly to maintain and open to all kinds of abuse.
About Ms. Reisman's Monica Lewinsky remark, she said: "Obviously, it's not something you can just wash off."