Independent bookstores across the Northeast reported robust holiday sales in December 2024, with many noting significant year-over-year growth despite weather disruptions and concerns about the economy.

Winter weather ensured a slow start at some stores across the Northeast. "Erie was crippled with a blizzard the day after Thanksgiving with four feet of snow, but after focusing on shoveling out ourselves and neighbors, we initiated a media campaign to promote local shopping," Kyle Churman, of Werner Books in Erie, Penn., said. A Santa visit event, he added, resulted in the store’s highest single-day sales of the season.

According to Arlan Hess, owner of Pittsburgh’s City Books, the store had a flat start to the holiday shopping season, but made up for slow sales in November with two busy weeks right before Christmas. “I think the outcome of the election shocked a lot of our customers,” he said. “After 2016, folks streamed in immediately—for comfort, for conversation, and for poetry. But this time around, it seemed like people were numb.”

Hess noted that, perhaps due to unseasonably warm weather until mid-December, many people in the Pittsburgh region seemed to not be thinking about the holidays until they were just around the corner—and, as a result, not shopping early, which led to a flat Small Business Saturday at City Books. In order to jumpstart sales, the store offered extended shopping hours on Friday, Dec. 6, which coincided with an evening holiday house tour in its neighborhood.

Despite these challenges, most stores that spoke with PW reported sales increases in December. The Otto Bookstore in Williamsport, Penn., delivered a 35% increase, while Hudson Valley Books for Humanity in Ossining, N.Y., had a 21% hike, contributing to its 27% annual growth. Reads & Company in Phoenixville, Penn., and Asbury Book Co-op in Asbury Park, N.J., reported double-digit gains.

Becky Fuhry of Pages & Parchment in Skippack, Penn., noted that November sales were nearly triple its December numbers, indicating shifting holiday shopping patterns in 2024. Extended hours proved effective for several stores; Jesse Post of Postmark Books in Rosendale, N.Y., said that early morning shopping hours in the final days before Christmas generated twice their projected sales.

"Most of the books that 'won' the season were books that had come out months earlier, like James by Percival Everett and All Fours by Miranda July," Benjamin Rybeck of House of Books in Kent, Conn., said. "The truth is, there was not much released in the fall season by any major publisher that was objectively huge and exciting, which I was always told was a purposeful strategy due to the intensity of the election. Orbital did quite well in paperback after the Booker Prize win, of course. But it reminded me of the importance of, when there's not many exciting new things to promote, falling back on that ol' feeling of curation, putting interesting things in customers' hands they wouldn't have otherwise picked up. To that end, we did quite well with offbeat titles like Mark Haber's novel Lesser Ruins and also a book called Spice by Roger Crowley from Yale University Press. In fact, Spice was our only holiday stack to dwindle down to one lone copy by the end. Imagine that!"

One title emerged as a consistent bestseller across multiple stores: The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. "The book's message of service has been an inspiration to many this holiday," said Kathy Harig, of Mystery Loves Company in Oxford, Md.

Bob Lingle of Good Neighbor Books in Lakewood, N.Y., reported strong community engagement. "We exceeded our previous December numbers before Christmas Day," Lingle said. "Our community had events each weekend through the month of December, including pictures with Santa, horse-drawn carriage rides, and a couple of author events. We beat our sales numbers for the previous month of December before we even hit Christmas Day, with overall sales up 50% for the month compared to last year, and our total sales for the year being up 13%." He noted that Sandwich by Catherine Newman was the store's top selling title for the year, requiring constant restocking throughout the holiday season.

Novel Attractions

Many stores in the region touted their offbeat displays and outside-the-box marketing and publicity strategies as helping to attract customers this holiday season.

"Those who were overwhelmed and/or emotionally exhausted by the election and the year's events could browse our Unhinged Holiday Gift Guide," Eileen McGervey, owner of One More Page in Arlington, Va., said. "It had categories like 'Birds,' 'Taylor Swift,' 'Murder,' 'Dismantling Systems of Oppression,' 'Cats,' and 'Women Who Were Alive in the 19th Century.' The store even included themed merchandise, like knife hair clips for mystery-loving friends. Customers appreciated the humor of it, and also the acknowledgement that it had been a tough year."

At Rudolph Girls bookstore in Westminster, Md., customers could take tags from one or more of the stores three trees to benefit the local Boys and Girls Club, families in need who had registered for our Santa's Sleigh program, and the local humane society. "Every single tag was taken," owner Alison Rudolph said. "We provided books to all of the children at our Boys and Girls Club, gifts for 21 local families, and a full load of donations to our humane society. Everyone loved it! This will definitely be a big part of our bookstore going forward."

The Collective Bookstore in Verona, N.J., got creative. "This is our second holiday season as a new bookstore, and we converted my office in the back of the bookstore (behind a bookcase) into a holiday popup gift shop called 'Santa's Speakeasy,'" owner Joshua Jacobs said. "Between the popup shop and our Narnia themed children's room, we are trying to create unique experiences for our customers that they can't get online and to help create excitement around books and reading for all of our customers, especially kids and emerging readers."

Gayle Weiswasser opened Wonderland Books in Bethesda, Md., on December 14th. "That was a crazy time to open a store. We held our opening day on one of the busiest shopping days of the year," Weiswasser said. "We had incredibly generous, gracious, and grateful customers and were so warmly greeted by our community. While we would not recommend onboarding new employees and testing a new inventory system during the holiday rush, it all worked out well and we were beyond happy with how we did. Even though the lines were long, people were smiling and patient, and they seemed so happy to have an independent bookstore in a community that has gone without one for 6 years. It confirmed that we chose a great location, and we love our new customers!"

Nadia Alawa of Mavey Books in Bryn Mawr, Penn., observed distinct shopping patterns. "Husbands and fathers came shopping during the weekday hours, and would carefully but quickly select books for each of their children and grab one of the bestsellers for their wives," Rahman said. "We were deeply touched, personally, by several teen boys that came in with an open mind to shop for their father or both parents, and would easily spend 45 minutes browsing and perusing until they found just the right books."

In Washington, D.C., Shirikiana Gerima of Sankofa Video and Books & Cafe focused on expansion plans. "We were in the midst of raising money to expand our building space at the same time that we continue the groundwork for transitioning into a co-op," Gerima said. "I hope we have not bitten off more than we can chew."

"We were fully staffed for most of the year, and gave all of our booksellers substantial raises to make their pay more in line with our values," Jason Hafer, of Reads & Company said. "Profit was down a little bit, but that was all related to payroll. So to be expected, and a good level set for our compensation structure."

Hudson Valley Books for Humanity demonstrated the value of careful inventory selection. "This tells us that not only do our customers seek out new books for themselves and for gifts, but we are doing a better job each year of selecting books that serve our vision and appeal to our customers," owner Amy Hall said.

Michael Newton of Asbury Book Co-op emphasized community outreach alongside sales growth. "In-store sales were up 9% over 2023," Newton said. "We focused on community this year, with a ton of events. We held a holiday book drive, and customers donated over 1,000 titles, which we are going to distribute to school kids grades K-12 in Asbury Park."

At Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, N.Y., general manager Nicole Brinkley shared a story that echoed Newton's focus, and embodied the Christmas spirit.

"One interaction that stands out in my memory was an older gentleman who was shopping for his 11-year-old daughter," Brinkley said. "She was not a strong reader, but her friends had recently gotten into books, so she wanted to start reading more too...but she wasn't ready for the books that her friends were reading. When I asked him if he needed help finding anything, he very shyly brought up this conundrum and—when I started pulling books that were appropriate for her reading level without feeling too young—he lit up like a Christmas tree. It was a glorious reminder of the power that booksellers have to help connect books to kids who want and need them and to the importance of children's books in particular."