{"id":9532,"date":"2026-05-27T18:01:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=9532"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:01:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:01:42","slug":"independent-bookstores-are-multiplying-although-many-people-still-think-theyre-dying-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=9532","title":{"rendered":"Independent bookstores are multiplying, although many people still think they\u2019re dying out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, is used to strangers expressing sympathy when they learn what she does for a living.<\/p>\n

Read more Why Americans are about to pay even more at the grocery store<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all so funny,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I tell them I run the trade association for independent stores, they\u2019ll say, \u2018It\u2019s just so sad that they\u2019re disappearing.\u2019 I don\u2019t think they\u2019re really keeping track, or they just know about a store that closed or heard about one closing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decline of physical bookstores remains so embedded in popular culture that the man dating Anne Hathaway\u2019s character in \u201c The Devil Wears Prada 2 \u201d laments that bookstores are \u201cgetting downsized and consolidated.\u201d But the decline actually ended years ago, and the latest numbers from the American Booksellers Association show independent stores expanding at a pace not seen this century.<\/p>\n

Membership in the ABA grew by more than 500 over the past year, to a total of 3,417 (at 3,783 locations), nearly triple what it was a decade ago and the highest level since the late 1990s. The surge included stores of various kinds \u2014 general interest shops like Hey Books! in San Diego; mobile stores like the Wandering Quills Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio; pop-up stores like Banyan Books in St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n

Many of the new members reflect the current boom in romance, fantasy and their hybrid, romantasy, whether the Spicy Librarian in Denver or the Flutter Romance Bookstore in Austin, Texas: \u201cWhere butterflies begin. And every story ends in happily-ever-after,\u201d according to its web site.<\/p>\n

Both a business and a calling<\/h4>\n

Independent bookselling, rarely a way to get rich, is a meeting ground for idealists \u2014 for young people with a sense of mission, retirees embarking on a new life or middle-aged people no longer satisfied with their careers. \u201cI think people want to realign their lives with their values,\u201d Hill says.<\/p>\n

In Wentzville, Missouri, 55-year-old Kelley Hartnett is a marketing consultant and copywriter who had always wanted to run a bookstore. Her husband\u2019s concerns included competing against Amazon, but Hartnett went ahead and opened Double Dog Bookshop in 2025 as a mobile store. She rode about the area in a converted cargo trailer, joined by two Australian Cattle Dog mutts, and has since opened a storefront downtown.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cFor me, Double Dog is about maybe 50% books and 50% community,\u201d says Hartnett, who hopes to find a larger space that would make it easier for customers to gather and \u201cjust be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are craving connection, especially in-person connection,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are over the internet and virtual meetings and algorithms. They\u2019re not the same as having a human to human connection. It feels really healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Federal judge drops charges against ex-Fox executive in soccer corruption prosecution<\/a><\/p>\n

Hill can joke about the mistaken elegies for bookselling, while expressing concern that the state of independent stores is healthy but \u201cprecarious.\u201d Costs are high, and schools and libraries face budget cuts that limit their purchases from local stores.<\/p>\n

Is there room for indies and giants?<\/h4>\n

Independent owners also find themselves worrying about a onetime competitor which itself had seemed endangered, Barnes & Noble.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The superstore chain was the dominant seller in the 1980s and 1990s, and was widely seen as the leading cause for hundreds \u2014 maybe thousands \u2014 of independent stores shutting down. But by the 2010s, Barnes & Noble had been surpassed by Amazon. It began shutting down stores instead of opening new ones and struggled for years to find a new owner before the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. bought it in 2019.<\/p>\n

Under the leadership of CEO James Daunt, Barnes & Noble is expanding again, adding more than 100 stores over the past two years. In Chicago, the owner of the decade-old Volume Books has blamed a new Barnes & Noble for putting her out of business, while Hill added that \u201ceven a small decrease in sales can make or break a bookstore\u2019s year in an industry with paper-thin margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daunt denies any intent to take business from independent sellers, saying it\u2019s not in his \u201cDNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an independent seller myself,\u201d he says, noting that he founded Daunt Books in London. Daunt says he has customers who shop at his store and the British chain Waterstones (where he\u2019s also managing director). \u201cI never thought of the market as finite.\u201d<\/p>\n

The owners of The Book Loft Oak Park, another Chicago-area store that opened last summer, acknowledge some nerves about a nearby Barnes & Noble coming soon. But Heather Nelson and Sophie Schauer Eldred hope the stores ultimately compliment each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping people whose curiosity is piqued by the new Barnes and Noble will walk down the street,\u201d Schauer Eldred said, \u201cand pop into our bookstore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Israel\u2019s military tells residents across southern Lebanon to leave as it fights Hezbollah<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, often hears people express sympathy for her role, assuming bookstores are disappearing. 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