In plot twist, independent bookstores survive forecasted doom

When Valerie Koehler opened Blue Willow Bookshop 20 years ago, she was warned that print was on the way out, online commerce was the future and opening a physical bookstore was foolhardy. The same report goes on to note that the share of Americans reading books on tablets has tripled since 2011, and readers on smartphones have doubled in the same time period. Longtime independents like Blue Willow were among the first to face serious competition from Amazon.com, said Barbara Stewart, professor of retailing and consumer sciences at the University of Houston.
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