Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Everything you wanted to know about bookstores in America

What do we really know about bookstores? While we follow bookstores and trends in the industry for a long time, we're still surprised to see how little we know.  The latest information comes from Online Education Database (OEDb) that collected some of the most interesting facts about bookstores and gathered them in a piece entitled '12 Stats on the State of Bookstores in America Today.'

Did you know for example that currently we have 10.800 bookstores in total in the U.S., a 12.2 percent drop in comparison to 1997? And what about Amazon - what's their share in the market? Well, apparently it's around 22.6% of the books in the U.S.(2011 figures).

An interesting fact that I've learned about in this article was that the average book buyer is 45 to 64, white, has a high income, is married, lives in the west, and is a college graduate. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise then to see the increase in Amazon's market share and the decrease in the total number of stores - the younger generations are just looking for other places to buy their books and e-books. 

Yet, the list ends with an optimistic forecast - independent bookstores may be making a comeback. It might be too soon to know if it's true, but it's certainly an optimistic way to close this great list of facts and we definitely hope it will come true!

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!