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.
