@fastcompany: The small American bookstore is back. Over the last five years, the number of independent bookstores in the U.S. jumped by 70%. But the industry’s success was far from inevitable. For a long time, indie bookstores were struggling. In 1995, when Amazon opened as the “Earth’s largest bookstore” and started undercutting the prices at brick-and-mortar stores, readers quickly started shopping online. Experts predicted that the industry would collapse. Then, the pandemic changed everything. “I think that in some ways, the pandemic woke people up to processes that were invisible to them before and made them realize that they had to act to support what was important to them,” says Andy Hunter, the founder of Bookshop.org. Read more about the independent bookstore comeback at the link in bio.