Rise of Independent Bookstores Reflects Growing Demand for Local Community Spaces

(SeaPRwire) –   Allison Hill, the CEO of the American Booksellers Association, often receives sympathetic reactions from people when they hear about her profession.

“It’s quite amusing,” she states. “When I explain that I lead the trade group for independent bookstores, they often respond with, ‘It’s such a shame they’re vanishing.’ I believe they aren’t truly following the trends, or they only recall a specific shop that shut down.”

The narrative of physical bookstore decline is still so prevalent that a character dating Anne Hathaway’s role in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” bemoans that bookstores are “getting downsized and consolidated.” However, that downturn concluded years back, and recent data from the American Booksellers Association reveals independent stores growing at a rate unmatched in this century.

ABA membership increased by over 500 in the last year, reaching a total of 3,417 members (operating 3,783 locations). This is nearly three times the figure from ten years prior and marks the highest count since the late 1990s. This growth encompasses a diverse range of stores, including general interest shops such as Hey Books! in San Diego, mobile operations like the Wandering Quills Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio, and pop-up venues like Banyan Books in St. Petersburg, Florida.

A significant portion of the new members mirrors the present surge in romance, fantasy, and the blended genre of romantasy. Examples are the Spicy Librarian in Denver and the Flutter Romance Bookstore in Austin, Texas, which describes itself on its website as: “Where butterflies begin. And every story ends in happily-ever-after.”

Both a business and a calling

Independent bookselling, seldom a path to wealth, serves as a convergence point for idealists—whether young people driven by purpose, retirees starting anew, or mid-career individuals seeking more fulfillment. “I believe people are looking to bring their lives into harmony with their principles,” Hill remarks.

In Wentzville, Missouri, Kelley Hartnett, a 55-year-old marketing consultant and copywriter, fulfilled a long-held dream by opening Double Dog Bookshop in 2025 as a mobile store, despite her husband’s worries about competing with Amazon. She traveled the region in a modified cargo trailer accompanied by two Australian Cattle Dog mixes and has since established a permanent storefront in the downtown area.

“To me, Double Dog is roughly half about books and half about community,” Hartnett explains. She aims to secure a larger location to facilitate customer gatherings where people can simply “be.”

“There’s a deep desire for connection, particularly face-to-face interaction,” she noted. “People have grown weary of the internet, virtual meetings, and algorithms. These don’t compare to genuine human interaction. It has a truly restorative feel.”

While Hill can laugh about the misplaced laments for the industry, she also voices concern that the condition of independent stores, though robust, remains “precarious.” Operating expenses are significant, and budget reductions for schools and libraries curtail their buying from neighborhood shops.

Is there room for indies and giants?

Independent bookstore owners are also growing apprehensive about a former rival that once appeared to be in jeopardy itself: Barnes & Noble.

The superstore chain was the top bookseller in the 1980s and 1990s and is commonly blamed for the closure of hundreds, possibly thousands, of independent stores. By the 2010s, however, Amazon had overtaken Barnes & Noble. The chain started closing locations rather than opening them and faced a prolonged search for a buyer before being purchased by the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. in 2019.

Now under CEO James Daunt’s direction, Barnes & Noble is once more expanding, having opened more than 100 new stores in the last two years. In Chicago, the proprietor of the ten-year-old Volume Books attributed her business’s closure to a new Barnes & Noble, with Hill noting that “in an industry with razor-thin margins, even a minor sales dip can determine a bookstore’s annual success or failure.”

Daunt refutes any aim to capture business from independent sellers, stating such a strategy isn’t in his “DNA.”

“I am an independent bookseller myself,” he says, referencing his founding of Daunt Books in London. Daunt mentions having customers who frequent both his shop and the British chain Waterstones (where he also serves as managing director). “I’ve never viewed the market as having a fixed limit.”

The founders of The Book Loft Oak Park, a different Chicago-area store that launched last summer, admit to feeling some anxiety about an impending Barnes & Noble opening nearby. Nevertheless, Heather Nelson and Sophie Schauer Eldred are optimistic that the two stores will eventually serve to enhance each other.

“We are hopeful that individuals whose interest is sparked by the new Barnes and Noble will stroll down the block,” Schauer Eldred said, “and step into our bookstore.”