Indie bookshops ‘buck the trend’ of retail gloom as store numbers stay high

Britain’s independent bookshops are “bucking the trend of high street decline”, according to a trade group, with last year’s number of stores remaining near a recent 10-year high.

The UK and Ireland had 1,052 independent bookshops at the end of 2024, down only slightly on the year before when the figure was 1,063, said the Booksellers Association.

The sector has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, driven in part by Covid-19 lockdowns and a subsequent rise in enthusiasm for reading, events and the physical spaces of bookshops, say owners.

Numbers have recovered from a record low of 867 independent bookshops in 2016 to a peak of 1,072 shops in 2022.

Nic Bottomley, who runs Mr B’s Emporium in Bath, said events and curated book subscription services have become an increasingly important part of his business.

Mr B’s Emporium holds more than 50 events of its own per year, such as talks with authors, plus many more for other organisations – including launch parties at the shop or pop-up sales elsewhere.

“Bookshops tend to be run by pretty energized creative people who are looking for opportunities to do different things,” he said.

“You have to not just be a shop, but be a shop that feels like it’s a warm, welcoming, experiential place.”

He added: “I’m not saying that that doesn’t exist in in other forms of retail, but it’s at the heart and soul of book selling.”

Mr Bottomley, who is also the Association’s executive chair, added that bookshops often benefit from the reputation of their employees being able to provide informed recommendations.

He said: “The public do often regard us as somehow expert, something like a semi-professional, rather than just a person at a till you know that there is an assumed knowledge.

“That is almost always correctly assumed. The people who gravitate to work in bookshops always love books.”

The resilient bookshop numbers come amid a difficult period for other retailers, who have grappled with poor consumer sentiment and rising costs in recent years.

Recent data from the Centre of Retail Research pointed to 13,479 shop closures in 2024, or 37 per day.

Mr Bottomley added that indie bookshops were not immune to these challenges.

He said: “The cost side of running a running a business has just increased enormously (in the last few years).

“All the thing needed to run a business, that could be what you pay for your website to what you pay for your paper bags, they’ve not edged up, they’ve jumped up.”

In its annual survey, the Association found that the impact of the rising cost-of living on consumer confidence was a concern for 77% of its members.

The state of the UK economy and staff costs were next most-cited, at 67% and 61%, respectively.

Meryl Halls, managing director of The Booksellers Association, said the figures “tell us a story of resilience with bookshops bucking the trend of high street decline through the graft, creativity and passion of booksellers”.

She said: “They should be celebrated by us all but not to the point of complacency or at the cost of action.

“This year’s Christmas trading survey of our members showed us how, in a sluggish overall book market and declining footfall, bookshops once again found a way through the situation and should act as a reminder to everyone that bookshops cannot survive only on the tenacity and resourcefulness of booksellers.”