Amazon Book Sale slices in the annual independent book shop day

Readers who patronize their local stores for annual Independent Book Shop DayParticipate again, perhaps unconsciously, in a competition between Indie bookshops and commercial giant Amazon.

The holiday, made 12 years ago to promote local companies in the same spirit as Record Store Dayhas become a national blessing for independent sellers, including more than 1,600 participating stores and online retailers. Every year on the last Saturday of April it now takes place supported by the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and saw the record online interest in 2024 in the midst of mass increases of book sales.

But when shops and shoppers were preparing and filling their carts full of books pending this year’s event, Amazon announced at the same time multi -day annual book salesIt takes place between April 23-28 and the recording of massive discounts on physical and increasingly popular e-books.

Users, including many Browse makers were upset and called the movement an obvious attempt to Steal the sale With the help of their age -old tactics of predator prices. Many insisted on fellow readers to protest against the book event of Amazon and instead to purchase it from a local store. In one Explanation to Fast CompanyAmazon refuted the claims that the timing of their sale was deliberately chosen to undermine the independent book Shopping Day and said: “The data for our sale was determined this year to house extra participating countries.”

Yet independent supporters from the bookstore do not believe it was a coincidence. Amazon, from an online bookseller, still maintains literary dominance, and it is not only about convenience: online options also exist for the independent bookstore, including mass market places such as Like Bookshop.org” Indiebound.orgAnd SavingAnd the use of e-book read apps that are connected to public library systems (such as libby and overdrive) swollen over months from Lockdown.

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Despite the expansion of all riches of trade, health and even artificial intelligence in the past three decades, the company has stayed Invest in his book offersEven testing physical Amazon Book -Winkelpuien. It now has more than 80 percent of the sale of the industry. In 2024, the ABA tried to intervene in a continuous federal trade committee Antitrust research, claiming that the dominance of Amazon is a monopolistic power about the sale of books. The motion was refused.

However, independent book stores continue to fight and have scored a number of important victories. In the past four years, the number of independent book stores has Almost doubledLeaning on the desire of the public for community involvement and accuration. Online communities in turn throw their support behind local stores, including black and LGBTQ companies, trade union shops and booksellers focused on various, or even forbidden, catalogs. At the same time one Renewed interest in public libraries In combination with an increasing anti-capitalist sentiment, a break in a financially uncertain time has offered for many.

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Thanks to Booktok and his famous ambassadors, Reading is cool again. And independent book stores, reinforced by these digital communities, continue to reduce the industrial giant.