Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

Independent Bookstores Are Making A Comeback Nobody Predicted

For more than two decades, independent bookstores across the United States were disappearing at an alarming rate, driven out by the rise of Amazon and big-box retailers that could offer steep discounts and instant delivery that small shops simply could not match. The American Booksellers Association had over 5,500 member stores in 1995, the year after Amazon launched, but by 2019 that number had fallen to fewer than 1,900, a collapse of more than 65 percent in just 24 years. Something has since changed, and the numbers say it plainly: there are now 70 percent more independent bookstores in the United States than there were just six years ago, with 422 new indie shops opening in 2025 alone, a 31 percent jump from the year before. Saturday was Independent Bookstore Day, the annual celebration that takes place across thousands of participating stores on the last Saturday of April.

Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, an online platform that sends over 80 percent of its profit margin directly to independent bookstores, says the shift goes deeper than sales numbers. He says people are galvanizing around bookstores as a force for good in their culture, choosing deliberately to spend their money in places that reflect their values and keep their communities intellectually alive. Since launching in 2020, Bookshop.org has given back nearly $47 million to local booksellers, and a Harvard Business School professor who has spent years studying the turnaround calls it a story of resilience unlike anything he has seen in retail. Indie stores have repositioned themselves as community anchors offering author events, book clubs, and curated shelves chosen by people who have actually read the books, and readers, it turns out, were willing to pay a little more for exactly that.

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/91529634/independent-bookstore-day-bookshop-org-founder-on-how-small-retailers-are-taking-on-amazon

PrevPreviousA Gamer Just Broke A 14-Year-Old Record By Playing Super Mario For 60 Hours Straight
NextAmsterdam Is The First Capital City In The World To Ban Fossil Fuel AdsNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Eating Eggs Regularly May Cut Alzheimers Risk By Up To 27 Percent

May 9, 2026

A new study from Loma Linda University Health has found that adults 65 and older who eat eggs regularly have a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, with people who consumed at least one egg per day for five or more days a week showing up to a 27

Read More
Happy News

Birdwatching Among Gen Z In Britain Has Grown By Over 1000 Percent Since 2018 And The Reasons Why Are Beautiful

May 8, 2026

Birdwatching has quietly become one of the fastest-growing hobbies among young people in Britain, with new research from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds finding that nearly 750,000 people aged 16 to 29 now birdwatch regularly, a staggering increase of more than 1,000 percent since 2018. The study

Read More
Happy News

Meet The Record Holders Who Prove That Age Is Genuinely Just A Number

May 8, 2026

Guinness World Records has published a new feature celebrating some of the most extraordinary older athletes on the planet, a collection of record holders that makes a compelling case that age really is just a number. Leading the group is Mathea Allansmith of Hawaii, born in 1930, who took up

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.