Independent bookshops in Northern Ireland thriving as part of national trend which is bucking 'wider retail gloom' says Booksellers Association
Independent bookshops in Northern Ireland are thriving as part of a national trend which is bucking the wider retail gloom, it has been reported.
The UK and Ireland had 1,052 independent bookshops at the end of 2024, down only slightly on the year before when the figure was 1,063, said the Booksellers Association.
There was a record low of 867 independent bookshops in 2016.
The sector has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, driven in part by Covid-19 lockdowns and a subsequent rise in enthusiasm for reading, events and the physical spaces of bookshops, say owners.
The resilient bookshop numbers come amid a difficult period for other retailers. Recent data from the Centre of Retail Research pointed to 13,479 shop closures in 2024, or 37 per day.
Meryl Halls, managing director of The Booksellers Association, said the figures “tell us a story of resilience with bookshops bucking the trend of high street decline through the graft, creativity and passion of booksellers”. She said: “They should be celebrated by us all but not to the point of complacency or at the cost of action.
“This year's Christmas trading survey of our members showed us how, in a sluggish overall book market and declining footfall, bookshops once again found a way through the situation and should act as a reminder to everyone that bookshops cannot survive only on the tenacity and resourcefulness of booksellers.”
David Torrans, who runs No Alibis bookshop on Botanic Avenue in Belfast, agreed that the trend for independent bookshops “has been more positive than it's ever been”.
He has found that outside events in partnership with bodies like Crescent Arts Centre, QUB, the John Hewitt Summer School, NI Science Festival and Belfast Book Festival have been very important.
But they also have trust with their personal customers.
All his staff “love books and are keen readers” and of the most important parts of the shop for customers are the “staff picks”.
“It used to be one shelf and now it is three bays because people will come in and ask – what has so-and-so picked?” he said.
“It boils down to the personal touch, the relationships you have with your customers – and them trusting you.”
He said that browsing in a bookshop can also be a valued leisure activity.
The shop has five primarily part-time staff, who help manage 10-15,000 books set in 700 square feet.
Jim Townsend of Bookends in Bangor also said that it is “still a healthy market”.
“While we do cheap paperbacks, we're in a niche specialist area in that we do rare books and signed first editions; we do beautiful books,” he said.
“There is a move towards it – just the way people are falling in love with vinyl music again.”
He notices a trend of young people in particular looking for vintage books.
“On Saturday, we were talking to a young lady who was interested in buying a 1907 edition of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
“It had beautiful illustrations and everything. Often somebody else has loved a book like this and it has its own life and history.”
He believes that teenagers who may feel they are “just a number” on social media will have a shelf of books “which they love and which represents their personality”.