Jaume Collboni: "Buy in bookstores, not on Amazon"

Barcelona"What peace," says mayor Jaume Collboni, as he enters the Documenta bookstore in Barcelona this Friday morning. Documenta bookstore in Barcelona. The Barcelona City Council has announced the first support plan for bookstores, fifteen days before Sant Jordi. The global allocation of the measure is 850,000 euros for 2026, and it is expected to have continuity. The mayor has been clear and straightforward: "Buy in bookstores, don't buy on Amazon. By buying in a small bookstore you are doing more than buying a book, you are defending a model of the city, a way of relating and that the profits stay in the neighborhood. We defend the right to stay in the neighborhoods and we help people like booksellers, our neighbors, friends, people like Éric, and not a man who has yachts sailing the Mediterranean," said Collboni. His words may recall those of Anne Hidalgo, then mayor of Paris, who still spoke during the pandemic so that bookstores could reopen.

In front of him, Éric del Arco, bookseller at Documenta and president of the Booksellers' Guild, defined the plan as "a before and an after." "What Barcelona is doing today should be looked at by county councils, provincial councils, and city councils, because if we want a reading country, bookstores must be part of public policies. Barcelona is setting the way," states Del Arco. The president of the booksellers has defended that "the book chain is not just an economic model, it is also a cultural ecosystem." "The entire administration must understand this. Books are bought in bookstores," claims the president of the booksellers.

Scholarships, campaigns, and premises

The plan includes four scholarships to take the diploma from the UB School of Bookstores, in addition to specific courses tailored to the needs of the sector so that booksellers have more management tools and a line of 80,000 euros for digitalization. The City Council also plans to set up municipal properties near cultural spaces such as civic centers and libraries to house bookstores, to combat "commercial gentrification", said Collboni. Where these premises are opened will depend on the available spaces and the entrepreneurs who propose an initiative.

A specific call for grants for bookstores will be created. 150,000 euros will be allocated to school libraries, with books to be purchased in bookstores. 300,000 euros will be allocated to the purchase of books in Catalan through the Bonus Consum and Bonus Cultura (two bonuses that the City Council intends to create in 2026). The plan will also provide support to people who drive cultural activities in bookstores. 200,000 euros will also be allocated to a promotional campaign. With these actions, the municipal plan aims to complement the National Plan for Books and Reading that the Government has in place.

Competition and habits

Bookstores are experiencing a moment of "outbreak," observes Collboni, despite the possible "lethal competition" from Amazon and with the consumption habits of young people. "Closing the mobile phone cannot be achieved without bookstores and libraries," said Collboni, who celebrated that these stores are culture, business, neighborhood, and cohesion. The mayor acknowledged that small bookstores also have to fight "commercial gentrification." Èric del Arco pointed out that online book sales are stagnant at 30%, and recalled that the price of books set by law favors the competitiveness of bookstores, including small ones, which operate as a network.

Collboni has called for "the hyperfragmentation of social life to be broken." "In this time of polarization, of combating lies, disinformation, and the trivialization of culture, the small spaces of bookstores are great spaces of resistance. That is why we have a moral duty to support them, not only morally, but logistically and physically," he said, recalling Joan Margarit's maxim "freedom is a bookstore."

Barcelona has 134 bookstores affiliated with the Booksellers' Guild, a third of which have fewer than 5 employees, and "they are a key part of the Barcelona cultural model," according to Collboni. Barcelona has been part of the Unesco network as a literary city for ten years. One of the plan's actions will also be the digitization of the literary map of Barcelona, which includes everything related to literature in Barcelona.