The specialty of the Crossword Franchise

The Crossword franchise also addresses a far wider audience with its uniqueness and attractive interiors. The book franchise aims to cultivate the habit of reading among children. The reading table inside the store is a good encouragement for children. The periodic crossword puzzles also attract children and families towards the store and this eventually ends in the cultivation of reading habits.

The Crossword retail franchise also aims to a point of cultural and social interaction. There have been occasions when authors and poets held court, times when children are regaled and people gravitate for information. Among the several writers who have visited Crossword are Sir V S Naipaul, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth Vikram Chandra, Michele Roberts, Kiran Nagarkar, Andrew Motion, Sashi Tharoor, Shobhaa De, Charles Handy, Ricardo Semler and Jack Canfield.

Regular reading sessions, discussions and debates are conducted on various ranging from literature and art to child sexual abuse, travel, parenting and health war and peace, business and management. Promotional events conducted by the store include pictionary contests, slide shows, quizzes, the annual event with Santa and his elves. Singer Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull gave a performance and the store was also visited by Macho Man Randy Savage, the WWF champion.

Since its inception in 1992, Crossword has received wide recognition for its achievements; articles on retailing in India invariably feature Crossword. It has been featured in Advertising Age International, USA, as one of the Marketing Superstars for 1994. The Bookseller, UK, has also described it as 'being on the cutting edge of retailing' in India.

The Crossword franchise itself has bagged many citations. It was the 6th most admired retailer in India by Businessworld for 2006. Crossword won the Reid & Taylor Award for Best Retailer of the year - Leisure & Specialty at the India Retail Summit 2005. Crossword also received the Federation of Indian Publishers Award for excellence in Publishing for the year 2004 on 18th June 2005.