Independent bookstores are leading the way: the future will be collective.

PalmThis is the story of two friends of over forty years who, after a lifetime dedicated to the same profession, have decided to join forces. Each will continue her work with the same spirit as before, but they will begin to share projects, ideas, and analyses to address the current situation, which bears little resemblance to when they started. Times are tough for neighborhood bookstores, and Quart Creixent (Palma) and La 22 (Girona) know this all too well. Therefore, with the support of Abacus, these two historic establishments have formed an alliance that seeks to strengthen them and, above all, preserve them as they are.

"Let's be clear: Quart Creixent will no longer be Abacus," clarifies Amadeu Corbera, one of the partners of the pioneering and leading bookstore specializing exclusively in Catalan books. "The closure of the [Abacus] store in Palma coincided with the announcement of this collaboration we've launched, but Quart Creixent will not change its name, its location, or its essence—although I'm not particularly fond of that last word," he adds. Bookseller Anna Nicolau, who is leading the project, confirms this. "We want to open a channel of communication and share strategies, as well as provide structural and financial support that can help improve management; and we will do this while preserving the identity of each of the bookstores that make up the network," she explains. "Many booksellers find themselves very isolated, because they have fragile structures, small margins, many are one-person operations, or have, at most, two or three employees… Cooperation is the only way to ensure their survival," she continues. Between hopeful and nostalgic, Corbera finds a way to summarize the reflection of the bookseller from La 22, who has now become one of the partners of Quart Creixent: "Most bookstores survive, this is what we do, and it's much easier to do it together."

Common Enemies

The list of factors that hinder the viability of many independent bookstores can be summarized in two main areas: Amazon and gentrification. "Amazon is the common enemy we all have to fight, regardless of the bookstore's characteristics," shares Anna Nicolau. "It affects us all. Right now, one in five books sold in Catalonia is through Amazon. And that percentage keeps growing." Corbera, who is not only a partner at Quart Creixent but also a musicologist and teacher, sees this every day with his students. "If they call someone a book, they look for it online. No matter how local the author or publisher is, it never even crosses their minds to go to a bookstore to find it. This is the typical behavior among young people, who are the ones who will have to keep bookstores afloat in the future. That is, those who have the money to buy books, because the vast majority struggle to make ends meet.

The social context, in fact, is just as, if not more, worrying than the online retail giant for the owners of Quart Creixent and La 22, two bookstores that have much in common. They were founded just a few years apart—the Girona bookstore opened in 1978, while the Palma one opened four years later, in 1982—and they did so thanks to the drive of people involved in the cultural life of their cities. In the case of Quart Creixent, these people included Antoni Artigues and Jaume Corbera. Both bookstores are also still located in the same place where their founders opened them more than..." 40 years, although saying they're in the same place is nuanced: the address and the premises are the same, yes, but the neighborhoods and districts of Quart Creixent and Llibreria 22 have changed so much that those in charge find it hard to recognize them.

On the one hand, there's the rise of tourist rentals, which has led to a year-on-year decline in the number of regular bookstore customers—people who lived nearby, the locals—and has transformed many establishments into mere thoroughfares for city visitors and spaces of pilgrimage and resistance for a segment of society. On the other hand, there's the gradual replacement of local businesses, which threatens the very definition and character of the neighborhoods they inhabit. "The fact that traditional shoe stores and butcher shops have been replaced by franchise after franchise paints a bleak picture," says Amadeu Corbera, sitting at a table in Can Joan de s'Aigo on Can Sanç Street, where ARA Baleares has met with him and Anna Nicolau. "Look, I don't think being here is a coincidence. What's left in Sa Gerreria that was here fifty years ago? Cuarto Creciente, Can Joan de s'Aigo, and little else. And why does a century-old establishment like this survive when a new ice cream shop opens every week in Palma? I suppose it has something to do, again, with that word I dislike so much, just in a different way. Palma is one of the places most affected by tourism; it's become a tourist desert, not at all friendly to local businesses. "It seems the only alternative left for us is to stop selling books and start selling postcards, something we have no intention of doing," he adds.

The bookstores of the future

With all this, Quart Creixent and La 22, together with Abacus, now have the opportunity to redefine what bookstores of the future should be, having secured their present through this alliance. They spent over a year and a half in discussions before signing a collaboration agreement. Now, they know they have a lot of work ahead of them to finalize the strategic guidelines they will share. But they also have a clear understanding that bookstores are much more than just a place to buy a book. "We need to enhance our programming, for example, without forgetting that a bookstore isn't an art center, nor is it a café—some are, but we're not. We don't want people to come here to work on their computers because it's a pleasant place to have a coffee, but we do want them to encounter a bookseller who knows them," reflects Amadeu Corbera.

This idea of ​​a bookstore, in any case, is the same one that both booksellers have known since they were children. In Corbera's case, he describes himself as "the little brother of Quart Creixent," since his father was one of the founding partners a few years before he was born. His childhood memories are inextricably linked to them: Joan Brossa, Biel Majoral, and Maria Mercè Marçal are some of the names that come to mind when he thinks back—although he admits he doesn't remember Marçal's visit very well—as does Tintin, one of the comics he read when his parents let him on Saturday mornings. Anna Nicolau, for her part, vividly remembers the spirit of the bookseller, named Joan, from the only bookstore in La Garriga, where she grew up, which she visited every Friday after school. "My grandmother would give me 200 pesetas to buy a book, and I would spend the whole week thinking about which one I would buy," she recounts, her voice filled with emotion. "It was the best time of the week. Joan knew me, knew where I came from, and helped me choose, and made that bookstore feel like home to me," she recalls.

Nevertheless, Nicolau and Corbera emphasize that the alliance they have just begun between Quart Creixent, La 22, and Abacus is only the first step of many to come. New establishments may join this year. "We want to forge a path together and create a cultural network across the Catalan Countries. In recent years, we have tended towards autonomous and disconnected networks, but we need to open doors for each other within this circuit, and enable an author from Mallorca to present their book in Girona and vice versa. This structure has always been necessary, but now it is essential," they conclude.