Last month, Amazon held its second Amazon Book Sale (the first was in May 2024) for six days, overlapping with Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday. Although a spokesperson for the online retailer claimed the overlap was unintentional, the coincidence was suspicious.
"Scheduling a sale on the biggest day of the year for independent bookstores seems to be a predatory tactic to hurt small businesses," Ray Daniels, chief communications officer of the American Booksellers Association, told Retail Brew. "Trying to dim their light isn't just bad for indie bookstores, but it's bad for readers and communities."
In anticipation of 2026, Retail Brew reported that it recently posed questions in writing to Amazon: "Would Amazon agree to not have its book sale week happen any time within the month prior to Independent Bookstore Day? If not a month before, would Amazon commit to not having it anytime within three weeks before? Two weeks before? One week before?"
Amazon PR manager Ale Iraheta responded: "We are always listening to feedback. This is the second year we've hosted the Amazon Book Sale which was only in the U.S. last year. In expanding the event to additional locales, dates were selected to accommodate all 10 countries and we unintentionally overlapped with Independent Bookstore Day."
Since this didn't answer its questions, Retail Brew asked again whether the company "would go on the record that it wouldn't schedule its book sale at the same time as Independent Bookstore Day in the future."
Retail Brew reported that in response, "Iraheta thanked us for following up--and added nothing to her statement."
In a poll, Retail Brew asked its readers if they thought Amazon should schedule its biggest annual book sale to coincide with Indie Bookstore Day, with 93.4% voting against the idea and only 6.6% supporting it.
With the widespread success of Independent Bookstore Day this year, ABA's Daniels was asked whether the publicity surrounding Amazon's intrusion might have actually helped indies. "Amazon doesn't help independent bookstores. Period," he replied. "It has a chokehold on the book industry."