On the 15th of June, non-essential retailers were
allowed to start operating. While many firms did not know how things would go,
it seems as if business is going very well for UK bookshops. These stores have seen a huge growth in sales.
According to the latest statistics, in the first six days
after bookshops re-opened, almost 4m books were sold. This is an increase of
30% over the same week in 2019. It seems as if readers became desperate during
the lockdown. UK’s official sales monitor Nielsen
BookScan had not been able to report on operations since 21 March “due to
the unprecedented temporary closure” of these outlets. It has now revealed that
from 15 to 20 June, 3.8m print books were sold. This equals to a total value of
£33m. It should be noted that this growth has been achieved despite the fact
that shops in Scotland and Wales were still closed over the period. This figure
is highest value performance for this time frame since 2003, when Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released.
James Ashmore at independent bookshop
Read, in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire advanced, “Yes, we’re back in business and
our lovely customers have come racing back. We think we are probably at about
our usual level in terms of sales”. He also said that his store is delivering
to vulnerable clients.
People
have been buying more books
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