Unveiling the Challenges of Bookselling: The Invaluable Role We Play in Society
What do you recommend for a grieving mother at 9 o’clock in the morning?
You could say it is a difficult time to be a bookseller or for bookshops to stay afloat. There are problems everywhere. The rising cost of rent, the soaring energy costs to heat and run buildings, or more importantly, what’s causing the death of most shops: Amazon.
The multinational corporation undercuts books like no tomorrow, and in a cost of living crisis, it’s no wonder that for many, it’s the only place they can afford to buy books.
But Amazon can afford to sell books for nothing precisely because they make so much profit on other items. For bookshops, books are our primary product. Above all, we strive to support the authors who write them.
I get asked regularly by customers how business is and if the bookshop I work in is surviving. When it’s not the customer who thrusts their Amazon app in your face and asks, “Have you got this book?” or, “Yeah but it’s £10 cheaper on Amazon,” there’s the opposite end of the spectrum customer who will do everything to avoid the place because they want to support bookshops and booksellers.
