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Independent booksellers have reported an encouraging Christmas, with 41.7% saying sales were up on 2009, according to preliminary findings in The Bookseller's Christmas Trading Survey. Despite the twin problems of the recession and weather, only 20.8% of respondents said sales were down on 2009. Almost 38% said sales were flat on the previous year.
Almost every indie surveyed said the snow had affected sales. Dinah Anderson, of Bookshrop in Whitchurch, said: "Weather played a part, though thankfully less so for us in the midlands than elsewhere. Heavy snow kept shoppers local, it seemed, for the first major fall, but the nearer to Christmas it got, it just seemed to keep them away from outdoor shopping."
Harry Wainwright from the Oldfield Park Bookshop, Bath, said: "We did have a wave of people coming in in the last five days [before Christmas]. People who had cancelled Amazon orders. We were promising deliveries very carefully." Independents were cautiously optimistic about the year ahead, although concerned about the government will steer the country through the recession as well as competition from online.
Hereward Corbett, of the Yellow Lighted Bookshops in Tetbury and Nailsworth, said: "We're very optimistic. It'll be a tough year, but customers are behind us - we sell something really valuable, that's comparatively cheap. All the metropolitan media trendies blagging and bragging about e-readers and iPads generates interest in books, and at the end of the day, that's good for us (but a bit embarassing for them!)."
The survey will close at the end of today. If you still wish to take part,http://surveymonkey.com/s/BookshopsChristmas2010" target="_blank" title="">http://surveymonkey.com/s/BookshopsChristmas2010"> please go here.
The full findings will be reported in Friday's issue of The Bookseller.