Independent bookstores say retaliatory tariffs pose ‘exponential threat’ to industry

Bookstore owners are concerned by tariffs that could affect more than 80 per cent of their merchandise.

Since opening Tidewater Books & Browsery in Sackville, N.B., three decades ago, Ellen Pickle has never faced anything quite like what the bookstore industry is facing today.

“Over the years, the sky has been falling, when audiobooks came out and people said, ‘Oh, you know, print will go,’ and I said, ‘No it won’t,’ and it hasn’t, but this is truly more terrifying because it affects the entirety of our book ecosystem,” she said.

“It’s not just booksellers; it’s publishers, it’s authors, it’s libraries, it’s schools. This one is much more of an exponential threat.”

For independent bookstore owners, it’s not the threat of tariffs from the United States that are causing worry – it’s the retaliatory ones that Canada plans to impose.

“The thing that we don’t understand as booksellers is where this tariff is targeting,” said Michael Higgins, owner of Lunenburg Bound Books in Lunenburg, N.S.

“I don’t know how this is going to impact American business to make them want to lobby the Trump administration to back off. It seems like we’re about to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Booksellers say most books, even those by Canadian authors and publishers, are printed and stored in the United States.

For both Higgins and Pickle, they say at least 80 per cent of their stock is coming from the U.S.

Higgins says there are five major international publishers and while they haven’t made a definitive statement, the hope is that the publishers will be able to absorb the potential blow.

“We could absorb a little bit, but to be honest with you, 25 per cent represents more than half of our profit margin, so we can’t absorb very much or for very long, so ultimately I’m frightened that this is going to get passed along to consumers,” he said.

As Lunenburg Bound Books prepares to celebrate 10 years in business this May, Higgins says there are a lot of unknowns surrounding the tariffs.

“Books have gone up in price in the last maybe five years due to some international conflict. Paper’s become more expensive, so books have crept up, but the idea that they might just jump to 25 per cent more, our customers are saying it’s a real problem for them,” he said.

However, it’s not just the jump in price that is causing booksellers to sound the alarm bells.

Those in the industry say there is a real concern about what this could mean for Canada’s mark in the industry overall.

“Big guys don’t carry nearly what the independents do, and if the independents start closing and all you’ve got left is the giants, the big American giants, they’re not going to support Canadian books,” said Pickle.

Officials say, right now, independent bookstores, their customers and even the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association are lobbying the government in hopes that something changes before next week.

“All we really can do at this point is make them understand that if they impact Canadian books, they’re impacting Canadian identity, Canadian history, Canadian culture,” said Pickle.

“If we don’t have those books, we don’t get them in the schools, we don’t get them in the libraries, we start losing what makes us unique in this country.”

There are a number of agencies that do print books in Canada, however, their supply isn’t as widespread.

Higgins says he does plan to lean more on Canadian printers and encourages readers to do the same, but he also understands that sometimes readers want a specific book.

“There is a Margaret Atwood memoir coming out this autumn, like there’s no substituting that,” he said.

“At this point I think it’s going to be printed in the United States of America. It’s published by a Canadian publisher, it’s authored by a Canadian, but it will probably, if this unfolds, be subjected to a 25 per cent tariff and there’s no substituting that.”

At this point, booksellers are hoping that something changes, and if it doesn’t, they hope readers will continue to support them as they navigate this next chapter together.