Book Sales Jump a Third as Bookshops Across England and Wales Reopen

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many stores across the world have been forced to temporarily shut up shop for the safety of their staff and customers.

Deemed non-essential in the UK, bookstores have been among the retailers whose doors have been closed for months but, as lockdown measures ease in England and Wales, sales of print books have jumped a third in just the first week of bookstores reopening, with booksellers saying their customers are “acting like kids in a sweet shop”.

As The Guardian reports, for the first time since December, stores considered non-essential were able to reopen and welcome shoppers back from 12 April. It seems the general public have missed browsing the shelves of their local bookshops as much as seeing their friends or going to the pub, as official book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan has reported a growth in the print market of 33% in volume and 32.5% in value week on week. In all, 3.7m books were sold in the first week.

Waterstones chief operating officer Kate Skipper said: “Opening our doors again was utterly joyous,” The book chain has opened 243 shops in England and Wales, and aims to open its Scottish and Northern Irish shops next week. “Being back amongst the shelves, touching the books and talking about books, is the best – recommending books is something that I think everyone’s just been desperate for. If you don’t know what you want to read, I don’t think you can replicate being in a bookshop.” Knowing the stores were likely to see an influx of customers, Skipper explained: “We’d had advance teams in the week before – we felt it was very important you didn’t feel like you were walking into a Christmas hell. So many people are just really thrilled to be back in a bookshop.

It’s not just major chains seeing a boom in business. Paul Angel, the owner of Westbourne Bookshop in Bournemouth, said: “We’ve had people trying to smell the books through their masks, and perfectly respectable middle-aged people acting like kids in a sweet shop. We’ve had a great first week.

“It was so nice to see some familiar faces again. We worry about some of our older customers, as they can be lonely at the best of times and their regular visit to a bookshop is an important part of their week.”

Jane James, owner of Not Just Books in Thetford said that children have also been just as eager to return to their local bookshops. “Our biggest compliment came Saturday morning when a dad brought his two sons along, saying, ‘I don’t know what you’ve done to my boys, but they’ve been up since 6.30am asking to come to the bookshop!'” she said. “To get this sort of feedback has made it all worthwhile, as since January we have doubted our timing on a couple of occasions.”

Despite the pandemic forcing bookshops to close, 2020 saw an eight-year high in sales, perhaps because people needed a distraction from the COVID-19 crisis. Major publishing houses and retail stores reported an increase in profits, while independent stores saw support from their locals.