Readers spend local stores on the Independent Bookstore of the Year, perhaps unconsciously participating in the competition between Independent Bookstore and business giant Amazon.
The holiday was created 12 years ago to promote local businesses in the same unification as Record Store Day, and has become a boon for independent sellers nationwide, including more than 1,600 participating stores and online retailers. The last Saturday of April each year is now supported by the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and is seen in the 2024 online interest in the case of increased quality of book sales.
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But as stores and shoppers prepare and stuffed with carts filled with books during the expected event this year, Amazon has also announced its multi-day annual sale, which took place between April 23 and 28, including massive discounts on physics and increasingly popular e-books.
Users, including many Booktok creators, were upset, and the move was clearly an attempt to steal sales using its ancient predatory pricing strategy. Many urge readers to protest Amazon’s book campaign and then buy from local stores. Amazon dismissed the sale timing intentionally undermined Independent Bookstore Day in a statement to Fast Company, saying: “Our sale date has been set to accommodate other participating countries.”
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Still, supporters of independent bookstores don’t think it’s a coincidence. Amazon’s origins as an online book seller, still maintains its literary dominance, not only to be easy: Independent book stores also have online options, including mass markets like bookshop.org, indiebound.org, and ThriftBooks, as well as the use of e-book reading apps to connect to public library systems such as libby and floddrive and dropdrive.
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Despite expanding to all business, health and even artificial intelligence over the past three decades, the company continues to invest in its book products and even tests the physical Amazon book storefront. Now, it has over 80% of the industry sales. In 2024, the ABA tried to intervene in the ongoing FTC antitrust investigation and alleged Amazon’s dominance constituted a monopoly on book sales. The motion was rejected.
However, Independent Bookstores continued to fight back and achieved some important victories. Independent bookstores have nearly doubled in the past four years, leaning towards the public’s desire for community engagement and planning. Online communities have lagged their support again to local stores, including black and LGBTQ-owned businesses, union stores, and booksellers focusing on diverse and even banned directories. Meanwhile, a renewed interest in public libraries and an increasing interest in anti-capitalist sentiment provide many with a financial respite.
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Thanks to Booktok and its celebrity ambassadors, Reading is cool again. These digital community-backed independent bookstores continue to oppose industry giants.
