By Oumou Diakité
While Amazon redefines our book buying habits, and giants like Renaud-Bray extend their empires, neighborhood bookstores find themselves at a crossroads.
Slim profit margins, high rents, increasingly volatile readers: several elements signal a delicate rebalancing of the literary landscape. Books still get out there, but mainly through large bookstores.
Elsewhere, neighborhood bookstores like the Librairie Laliberté in Quebec City continue to bet on proximity, the human touch and community roots. Despite editorial overproduction, digital e-books and market concentration, these smaller bookstores persist in offering another way to consume literature.
Their presence poses a basic question: what is left of the cultural, social, almost emotional link between a reader and their bookstore?
And are bookstores really an endangered species? Isn’t there a parallel effervescence around books on social media – from BookTok to Bookstagram – that entire communities are putting at the heart of their cultural practices?
The passion for a toxic romance novel, a Nordic thriller or the latest literary prize winner is shared in posts, stories, reels and hashtags. But this doesn’t guarantee that readers will get their fix in bookstores. It upsets the normal way of buying books by directing attention to a tiny clutch of omnipresent titles, often promoted by algorithms rather than by bookstores themselves.
In this tension between the digital world and local roots, the fate of community bookstores isn’t necessarily that of a slow, agonizing demise.
Stay Open!
Behind the well-kept shelves, the reality of independent bookstores is getting more complex.
Thomas Genin-Brien, who is assistant to the director of the Quebec association of booksellers, the Association des Librairies du Québec (ALQ), confirms that some bookstores have closed their doors; but that this doesn’t mean the entire system is collapsing.
He even speaks of a rebound in bookstore openings over the past few years. The numbers bear this out: between 2020 and 2024, Quebec registered 22 openings and 18 closures, for a positive balance of 4 bookstores. Indeed, half the new bookstores opened in Montreal.
It’s in striking contrast to the 2010-2015 period, marked by 40 closures compared to only 13 new store openings.
But this slight increase should not mask the profound problems faced by this sector of the economy. Opening a store doesn’t guarantee its long-term viability. Three challenges stand out: a lack of manpower; the difficulty of finding new entrepreneurs to take over when an owner moves on; and a constant rise in operating costs.
“The retirement of an owner with no one to take the reins sometimes causes a bookstore to close,” Genin-Brien observes. In some regions, notably outside major centres, the situation is even more fragile. In areas where population is thin and supporting resources are less developed, keeping a small village bookstore open can be a test of endurance.
The Rise of Co-ops
Faced with these obstacles, one model is emerging: the co-op, or collective management. The ALQ has noted a rising interest for this management model that allows for a sharing of responsibilities, risks… and a love of books.
“It’s a manner of avoiding bookstore closures, pure and simple, when an owner wants to pass the torch. We see collectives mobilizing to save bookstores.”
Among inspiring examples are: the Librairie Flotille in the Magdalen Islands, which has reinvented itself as a work cooperative. Or La Livrerie in Montreal, which built strong links to its neighborhood by adding a café, writing workshops and round table discussions.
These models are not without their own challenges: training staff and management, coordinating between members, maintaining inventories, and building customer loyalty are among them. But they demonstrate that another future is possible, one that is more supportive and anchored locally.
To accompany this transition, the ALQ has developed on-line training modules, especially on stocks and the integration of new employees. The ALQ also encourages the creation of practice communities between bookstores.
In effect, Genin-Brien explains that it’s important to build bridges between bookstores in different regions and get away from the competitive reflex so that a collective intelligence can emerge.
Bookstores vs Social Media
But what good are bookstores without readers? The link between on-line book communities (BookTok, Bookstagram) and community bookstores remains ambiguous.
If these platforms are breathing new life into reading, they often direct their readers to a small group of super-visible titles, promoted by algorithms more than by local word of mouth.
The result: bookstores must juggle with the concentrated demand of just a few titles, often out of fashion in three months, while other pearls pass unnoticed.
“Algorithms can’t replace human advice,” insists Genin-Brien. “A bookstore can bring you to a novel you would never have otherwise noticed.” That’s where the real strength of independent bookstores lies: in this almost artisanal attention to its customers, based on their personal wants.
Reinventing Without Betraying
If there is a constant in this changing landscape, it’s the need for neighborhood bookstores to reinvent themselves without leaving behind their community strengths.
Some rely on a strong online presence. Others rely on literary events, newsletters, and local meetings. The boldest among them don’t hesitate to play the social media game: ironic, warm, engaged. The platform leslibrairies.ca, a transactional cooperative of independent bookstores, competes with Amazon on its own level, all the while defending another way to sell books.
To this we can add initiatives like the Prix des librairies du Québec, which gives visibility to books sold by independent bookstores.
And the promotion to get people to buy a Quebec book every August 12th causes a noticeable rise in sales. This encourages new authors.
A Human Touch
Is the neighborhood bookstore a threatened species? No. despite the chill commercial winds facing them, inventory to sell and Instagram stories that dictate literary tastes, bookstores are still holding their own.
People love to read, and in 2025 we can count one opening for every closure of an independent bookstore.
Bookstores offer something unique: a place, a face, a memory.
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