Indie Bookstore Popularity Growing in US

Independent bookstores in the U.K. and Ireland hit their highest numbers since 2012 last year, the Booksellers Association announced last week, marking a growing popularity of bookstores in the region. 

But that growth isn’t limited to the U.K. Data from the American Booksellers Association (ABA) shows that in the U.S., despite last year being “the most challenging year for indies on record,” indie bookstores are following the same trend. 

A total of 605 new bookstore businesses opened in 2025 in the U.S., the ABA’s 2025 Annual Report states. Over the past six years since the pandemic, the ABA has seen an average of about 250 new stores per year, so last year marks a notable spike. Currently, its membership includes  3,783 independent bookstores. 

“ I do think, coming out of the pandemic, people really realized that you have to vote with your dollars for the community you want to live in,” Allison Hill, CEO of the association, said in a phone call. “If you love these small businesses, you have to be shopping with them and supporting them to ensure that they are sustainable. We saw people trying to shop in alignment with their values and people opening bookstores because they wanted to align their work with their values.”

Despite this growth, 2025 was a historically difficult year. The ABA’s report references “rising costs, tariffs, the impact of ICE and the National Guard in communities, discriminatory laws, the impact of climate change, book bans and challenges, and free speech harassment, in addition to the perennial challenges of thin margins and Amazon’s monopoly and monopolistic chokehold on our industry.”

When it started in 1900, the ABA had a total membership of six bookstores. That number grew to over 7,000 by 1994—when Amazon.com launched as an online bookstore. Amazon’s effect was forceful; by 2009, ABA’s membership had dropped to 1,651. 

Last year’s spike, Hill said, was in part due to a response to the growth of such massive companies. 

“ We definitely experienced the benefit of a backlash against billionaires and algorithms,” Hill said. “We’ve definitely seen this idea of shopping as resistance, and people wanting to support businesses and institutions that are inclusive and focused on community and authentic.”