“Going to the store should be an experience”: “Read-city” will change its brand

The company will open the first two stores with an updated design in Moscow in the Aviapark shopping center (before the end of the year) and in Afimall (in early 2025).

The interiors will become more welcoming and intimate thanks to dark graphite colors, light beige decorative areas and soft lighting, a company representative said. The large stores, including the new locations, will have cafeteria areas for communication and meeting with the authors.

“Going to the store should be an experience and quality time alone with yourself and books,” said a Read City representative. By 2025, it is planned to reequip 40 stores and open 20 new ones.

The general director of the Depot brand agency, Alexey Andreev, estimated the redevelopment of a store at 10 million rubles. According to him, the company’s willingness to invest billions of rubles in the renovation and renovation of stores indicates that the chain has problems, including with sales. Now it cannot be said that the book market is on the rise, the expert highlighted.

The revenue of the combined Chitai-Gorod – Bukvoed network in 2023 decreased by 6% and amounted to 15.9 billion rubles, while in 2022 they showed growth, Kommersant reports with reference to data from Eksmo-AST.

In November 2024, “Read the City – Bookvoed”, within the framework of competition with the markets, agreed with the publishers “Alpina” and “Eksmo-AST” to reduce the prices of new products in physical stores by up to 20 % compared to 2023.