IT WAS SUGGESTED this week, at the highest levels of Government, that the arrival of Amazon.ie is good news for all. As a small retailer and family business operating in Galway city, we at Kennys Bookshop disagree.

The negative impact Amazon has had on other markets should be enough to cause major concern as to what its presence in Ireland could do to small and medium businesses here.

Looking at bookshops alone, numbers in the UK are half of what they were when Amazon launched there in 1995, while in the US, a Harvard Business School report showed that in the five years after Amazon launched there, 40% of indie bookstores closed.

Ireland’s Laureate na nÓg, Patricia Forde, recently said, “I can’t imagine living in a town without a bookshop. Would it even be a town?” Bookshops are places of discovery and culture, of peace and calm, of community and creativity, and with something to offer everyone. As well as Kennys Bookshop, Galway City is lucky to have Charlie Byrne’s, Dubray, Eason and Bell, Book & Candle.

These shops form an integral part of the city and what it offers the community, visitors and tourists alike. They pay rates, sponsor local teams, they employ locally and host events, they support writers and encourage children to read. Without them, the city would be worse off.

Unhelpful model

We are fortunate in Ireland to have so many great bookshops, but there is serious concern amongst the book trade as to what the impact of Amazon will be here. In the UK, Amazon has the monopoly on online book sales, with around 50% of printed books, over 90% of ebooks and over 95% of audiobooks sold through them.

However, while Amazon tends to undercut sellers on many of the major titles, they are by no means always the cheapest. The average amount spent on a book in Ireland in 2024 was just €13.10. When we want a new novel, do we really need to give this to an online, multi-trillion euro corporation, instead of the town’s bookseller who has a website with a delivery service or a shop you can walk into? The same goes for anything we buy.

Sarah Kenny of Kennys Bookshop in Galway.

Yes, Amazon is a platform where businesses can list their products for sale. And many Irish retailers do. However, Amazon’s commission can be as high as 20-25%, depending on the value of the product. They also charge membership and fees, and sellers worldwide have complained about ongoing issues listing with Amazon due to opaque practices.

Investing in local

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw the huge effort made by consumers in Ireland to support local businesses at risk of closure. It was so encouraging and had a huge impact on many levels. At Kennys, we got almost daily messages from people telling us how they had made the extra effort to shop locally with us and other retailers, instead of spending with bigger corporations online and sending their money overseas. Lists were regularly published, forums active and groups set up to promote Irish retailers and to highlight where you could find books, electrical goods, crafts, toys, clothing, food and so on during the pandemic. Could the same thing happen again?

It is going to be extremely difficult for retailers in Ireland to compete with the multi-trillion-euro corporation that is now on our doorstep, and nobody wants to see local businesses closing. But for our towns to continue to have bricks and mortar stores, consumers will need to shop in them (either in-store or online) instead of on Amazon. And it is up to us as retailers to provide incentives for them to do so.

The good news is that there is nearly always an Irish retailer to provide an alternative to Amazon, and often, they offer better service and value for money. At Kennys Bookshop, for example, we have free delivery in Ireland on all books and sell thousands of books heavily discounted and cheaper than Amazon. We have personal customer service, a physical bookshop and art gallery in Galway City, and we regularly host free events. We directly support authors, artists and publishers, and have experienced booksellers available to help with recommendations.

Online shopping is something we have all come to embrace, and it is here to stay. But the one-stop-shop conglomerate is not the only show in town. Local Irish retailers have survived and thrived for decades for a reason, not least because they contribute to the community they are in.

As businesses, we need to shout about our unique selling points and provide good value and customer experiences. And as consumers, we need to think about where and how we spend our money, and the long-term effect of those decisions. Do we want to buy those headphones from our local electrical shop, either in store or online and put the money back into our community? Or do we want to buy them from a foreign billionaire?

Now, more than ever, is the time to shop local and shop Irish, because we won’t know what we have until it’s gone.

Sarah Kenny is a third-generation bookseller at Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway. The shop was opened by her grandparents there in 1940 and their websitekennys.ie, which went online in 1994, is the oldest online bookshop in the world.