However, ABA data shows the number of independent bookstores in the U.S. “For a long time, from 1992 to 2002, you literally could count on two hands the number of openings,” Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, told USA Today in 2006. In the 1990s alone, Borders went from 21 bookstores to 256 superstores. plummeted from around 4,000 in the early 1990s to about 1,800 in 2006, largely because of the growth of Borders and Barnes & Noble. The number of independent bookstores in the U.S. The bookstore’s best sellers are typically older, quirky books, and are rarely New York Times bestsellers.įor several years, the future of independent bookstores didn’t look so promising. “We attract a certain kind of reader who still wants to touch a physical book, and misses the ‘bookstore experience,’” said Barrett. The New York City-based bookstore reported a third consecutive loss for the latest quarter on Thursday, and its stock price of $10.04 is down 26 percent from a year ago.Īs of March 2014, Amazon had a 41 percent market share of all new book purchases, including a 65 percent share of online book purchases.īut Bookends and Beginnings is in a market segment that has been able to fight off online competition, and is thriving now that corporate bookstore competition has waned. stores in 2011, and Barnes & Noble is struggling mightily to keep its head above water.
But online competition from Amazon crippled the two chains’ brick-and-mortar business model.īorders went out of business and shuttered all 511 of its U.S.
cities, had two major retail bookstores for years – Borders and Barnes & Noble. But the time was right.”Įvanston, like many other U.S. “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have considered opening one. “It’s an interesting time for bookstores,” said Barrett. The following summer, Nina Barrett and her husband, Jeff Garrett jumped at the opportunity to take over the tenancy of the bookstore. Bookman’s Alley was such a community staple that author Audrey Niffenegger mentioned it in her 2003 bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife. With a narrow brick exterior and a deceptively large interior, it would fit nicely in Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley.Įvanston bookworms mourned when the building’s former resident, Bookman’s Alley, closed in October 2013, after 33 years in business. Tucked neatly into an alleyway between Sherman and Benson Avenue sits Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston’s only independent bookstore.
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