Paris Olympics 'disaster' for bookshops after 'dramatic' sales drop

The Paris Olympic Games may have been a greater success than expected, but for many of the capital’s bookshops, they have been dismal or even disastrous.

Traffic restrictions and the massive exodus of Parisians deprived many outlets of their regular customers, and overseas Games spectators were more interested in sports and the social life surrounding them than buying books and other traditional tourism pursuits.

Brian Spence, owner and manager of the English-language Abbey Bookshop in the Latin Quarter, told The Bookseller that the problems began in May, when there was confusion over the traffic and public transport restrictions and when the barricades would go up.

This meant that "Paris was not the place to be for locals or tourists", he said. It also meant the neighbourhood did not benefit from the euphoria unfurling elsewhere during the event. "It was like a ghost town and was sort of depressing," he added. Fearing delivery difficulties, which did not occur, he stocked up hugely for the holiday trade. But sales on the Monday before the 26th July to 11th August Games opened were just 15% of those on the equivalent Monday a year earlier.

Fortunately, this follows a buoyant two years for the Abbey Bookshop, whose sales break down into about 75% for new and 25% for secondhand titles. The store’s turnover doubled between the pre-Covid year of 2019 and 2022, and rose by another 12% in 2023. But since May, it has not even reached 50% of the same period last year.

Les Traversées, also in the Latin Quarter, suffered a 10% drop in sales and a 5% drop in the number of visitors in July against a year earlier, the trade publication Livres Hebdo reported.

In the week before the Games opened, the French Booksellers Association (Syndicat de la librairie française, SLF) said Paris members’ sales were down by an average of 11% over the same period.

Le Piéton de Paris, a Paris specialist bookshop near the City Hall, said the situation was "dramatic", particularly during the run-up to the event between the 16th and 28th, because of strict security measures including a ban on all motorised vehicles, Livres Hebdo added. Manager Frédérique Aubier said only 10 people visited the shop during those 10 days: "If I had known, I would have gone away on holiday."

For Spence, prospects for the Paralympics which follow in just over two weeks from 28th August to 8th September, are less bleak. "I expect it to be like the World Cup—you gain a bit and lose a bit. In other words, it should be neutral."