Independent bookshops face brutal economics. Rent increases, wage pressure, Amazon competition, supply chain challenges. Many are barely profitable. Some are subsidised by owners who love books more than they love solvency.

Readers claim to value bookshops, then browse in-store and buy from Amazon. This behaviour is slowly killing the bookshops people say they love.

If you genuinely want independent bookshops to survive, here’s how to be the kind of customer that makes survival possible.

Buy Books, Not Vibes

Bookshops aren’t free libraries or Instagram photo backdrops. They’re retail businesses selling products. Revenue comes from book sales, not foot traffic.

If you can afford to buy, buy. One book per visit minimum. Preferably more. Small purchases add up. Bookshops need consistent sales, not occasional big spenders.

Buy the books you discover in-store. Browsing bookshop shelves then buying the same books cheaper online is using bookshops as free Amazon showrooms. This is directly harmful.

Understand pricing. Books have recommended retail prices. Independent bookshops can’t discount as heavily as Amazon or Big W. If price difference matters that much to you, acknowledge you’re choosing cheap over supporting local business. That’s a valid choice, but don’t claim to support bookshops while undermining their economic viability.

Special Orders Are Good

Request books the shop doesn’t stock. Bookshops can order almost anything. They earn margin on special orders same as stock purchases. This supports them while getting you the book you want.

Be patient. Special orders take time. Publishers operate on different schedules. Books might arrive next week or next month. Wait time is part of supporting independent retail.

Pick up what you order. Don’t request special orders then never collect them. Bookshops have paid their supplier. Uncollected special orders cost them money directly.

Staff Time Has Value

Booksellers are resources, use them. Staff have read extensively and can provide excellent recommendations. This is service Amazon cannot offer. Use it.

But respect their time. Twenty-minute conversations during quiet periods are fine. Monopolising staff when the shop is busy is not. Read the room.

Don’t expect book club discounts. Some shops offer them, some don’t. Asking is fine. Expecting or demanding is not. Book clubs already stress bookshop economics (bulk orders, returns, time-intensive service).

Recommendations are help, not guarantees. If a bookseller recommends something you end up disliking, that’s reading taste variance, not staff failure. Don’t treat it as broken promise.

The Coffee Shop Problem

Many bookshops now include cafes. This subsidises book sales (coffee has better margins) and increases foot traffic. It also creates customer confusion about what the business actually is.

Buying coffee doesn’t replace buying books. The cafe exists to support the bookshop, not replace it. If you buy coffee but no books every visit, you’re a cafe customer, not a bookshop customer.

Extended cafe sitting is fine if you’re buying. Spending two hours reading over coffee is welcome if you’re buying books and beverages. Sitting for hours buying nothing is taking space without contributing.

Clean up after yourself. Bookshops aren’t fully-staffed cafes. Bussing your own table helps.

Events Are Community, Not Free Entertainment

Author events, book clubs, literary discussions, workshops — these cost bookshops time and money to organise. They’re community building, not profit centres.

Attend events for books and authors you’re genuinely interested in. Don’t treat bookshop events as free evening entertainment when you have no intention of buying the book.

Buy the book. If you attend an author event, buy the book from the bookshop, ideally that night. That’s why the event exists. Sales justify the expense of hosting authors.

RSVP accurately. If you register for an event and can’t attend, let the bookshop know. They’re planning numbers for seating, refreshments, and book orders.

What Not To Do

Don’t use bookshops as free childcare. Unsupervised children damaging stock costs bookshops money. By all means bring kids, but supervise them.

Don’t treat books roughly. Cracked spines, dog-eared pages, coffee stains — this damage makes books unsellable. Handle stock carefully.

Don’t assume everything is negotiable. Asking for discounts, challenging prices, demanding special treatment. Bookshops operate on thin margins. They’re not haggling spaces.

Don’t showroom. Taking photos of books to search for cheaper prices elsewhere is openly hostile to bookshop survival. If you can’t afford bookshop prices, use libraries. Don’t use bookshops as Amazon catalogue.

Don’t steal. Obvious, but book theft is apparently common. Bookshops lose money directly on stolen stock. Don’t be that person.

Supporting Without Buying

If you genuinely can’t afford to buy books regularly, you can still support bookshops:

Borrow from libraries, buy occasionally from bookshops. Reserve book-buying budget for independent bookshops rather than chains or online.

Recommend the bookshop to others. Word of mouth matters. If you love a bookshop, tell people.

Attend free events. Even if you can’t buy, attendance supports community building.

Social media support. Share bookshop posts, tag them in reading photos, review them positively. Visibility helps.

Give bookshop gift cards. Instead of buying books as gifts, buy gift cards. Recipients get to choose their own books, bookshop gets guaranteed sales.

The Bigger Picture

Independent bookshops provide:

• Curated selection (human judgment about quality, not just algorithms)
• Community spaces for literary culture
• Author event hosting
• Employment for people who love books
• Personality and local knowledge
• Discovery beyond bestsellers and trends

These values matter beyond commercial transaction. But they only survive if enough people actually buy books.

Amazon is convenient and cheap. Nobody disputes this. But convenience comes with costs: homogenised culture, monopoly power, exploited workers, communities losing gathering spaces.

Choosing bookshops over Amazon isn’t consumer irrationality. It’s acknowledging that some things matter beyond lowest price and fastest delivery.

If bookshops matter to you, act like it. Buy books. Pay recommended retail price. Special order. Attend events. Build relationship with the shop and staff.

Independent bookshops survive through customer loyalty, not casual browsers. Be a customer who helps survival, or accept that bookshops will continue closing.

The choice is straightforward: support what you value, or watch it disappear.