The return of the page: Macon bookstores thrive in digital age

In Gottwals Books’ warehouse in Byron, piles of hardcovers and paperbacks await shipment to online customers. Other used and new books in the inventory are destined to hit the shelves in Macon and the local chain’s three other Middle Georgia locations.

Gottwals’ thriving operation challenges a common misconception in today’s digital era — that demand for physical books is dwindling, and bookstores are dying as more people turn to their e-readers.

National data suggest the business’ success isn’t an anomaly. More than 70% of bookstores reported increased sales in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to a survey from the American Booksellers Association. 

Following the pandemic, people longed for in-person experiences, resulting in a renaissance of bookstore and cafe culture.

“They want to shop in the store. They want to meet other people who are interested in the same things they are,” said Bear’s Books owner Margaret Harrington. “That is a post-COVID phenomenon — that people do want to have experiences, and they’re willing to pay for an experience more than just buying things.”

But make no mistake. While brick-and-mortar stores are “not dying,” Shane Gottwals said, running a bookstore in 2026 isn’t the same as it once was, when super chains like Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble dotted the landscape in many American cities.

“It’s much harder to do it well,” said Gottwals, the local chain’s founder.

The cost of everything from employee wages, electricity and gas for company vehicles has soared since he and his wife, Abbey, opened their first shop nearly two decades ago. 

Yet sales continue to steadily climb year over year in three of their four stores — proof that, despite growing pains, the Gottwals managed to turn a new page, tailoring their business to contemporary book consumers.

 A tumultuous time to open up shop

The year was 2007. Amazon had taken over the book-selling industry. An economic recession loomed around the corner. And traditional bookstores like Borders were circling the drain. 

Had he seen the writing on the wall, Gottwall said, he probably would not have opened his first store that year in Warner Robins. 

“Our total ignorance is the only reason why we ever existed in the first place,” he said. 

He and his wife both earned degrees from Mercer University — Shane’s in English and Abbey’s in business. Opening a bookstore seemed like the perfect use of their combined skillsets, he said. 

Offering a curated selection of secondhand books, the couple traveled the Southeast in search of merchandise to add to their growing collection. Some days, Gottwals said, he would spend 5 a.m. to midnight traveling to and from sales out of state.

It wasn’t the bookstore’s expansive selection, however, that carved the way for their initial success, Shane Gottwals said. It was Abbey’s easy rapport with customers.

“Folks will come back to somebody that they love, to ask them for recommendations,” he said. “That’s a lot better than the Amazon algorithm.”

Some customers make a point of shopping at Gottwals instead of Amazon, said Macon store manager Miranda English.

“They want the connection with people — real people,” she said. “That’s what keeps people coming back.”

At the Macon store on Riverside Drive, English sees mostly women between the ages of 20 and 40. Many visit the shop in search of literary classics, and customers at the Macon branch have shown more interest in local history books than at any other Gottwals location, she noted. 

Growth in the age of online shopping

Gottwals opened additional stores in Byron in 2009, then in Macon six months later and Perry in 2012. 

They introduced a trade-in book program and began buying and selling textbooks, new books and toys. Today, 40% of their revenue comes from new books. 

In 2011, they began adapting to the modern market by selling books to online customers. Plenty of readers still craved the tactile experience of books, even if the methods of obtaining them had changed.

A few years later, the couple purchased a 50,000-square-foot warehouse, which served as a depot where truckloads of books were processed before being shipped to online customers or transferred to one of their stores.

This meant that a customer visiting any one of the four locations could request a particular book and have it shipped there from the warehouse. 

Selling and shipping books online allowed them to reach a larger audience.

An expensive vintage book with limited local interest is more likely to sell online than in stores, Shane Gottwals explained.

As he became increasingly particular about the type of books he collected and sold online, he downsized to the 10,000-square-foot warehouse that they now occupy on Gunn Road in Byron.

Inside this warehouse, books — some with faded spines and tattered covers, others crisp and unopened — are crammed onto rows of metal shelves. 

The only books not for sale are tucked away in Gottwals’ “Narnia closet,” a private room within the warehouse where he stores his personal collection of C.S. Lewis books, letters and artifacts.

COVID encourages more readers

The world shutting down in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic might have seemed like the last death blow to brick-and-mortar bookshops, but Gottwals Books persevered.

“A lot of people learned how to read again during COVID,” Gottwals said. 

With everyone stuck inside their homes, online orders took off. Today, half of the company’s revenue comes from online sales. 

At the same time, however, book clubs, author talks and storytime events came to a halt, as well as midnight book releases, which had sometimes garnered a line of people outside the Macon shop waiting to purchase a new book.

So Gottwals Books did what it had done before: It adapted. 

The business began selling “survival packs,” a $35 bundle of books curated by staff at Gottwals using customer-submitted information, such as preferred genre and age range. Customers could pick these bundles up curbside or have them shipped. The store made $30,000 in “survival pack” sales in one month, which Gottwals said allowed him to pay all his employees on time as they awaited government subsidies.

Post-pandemic bookstore revival

Other bookstores operating in Macon include Golden Bough on Cotton Avenue, Ingleside Bookstore and Cafe on Wimbish Road, Friends of the Library Macon-Bibb on Forsyth Road, and Barnes & Noble on Riverside Drive.

Harrington, who has lived in Macon since the early 1980s, opened Bear’s Books in October 2023.

Before, she had hosted some book discussions and writing classes at a coworking space in Macon.

She said the last indie bookstore for new books, Ingleside Books on Ingleside Avenue, had closed years before.

She wanted a similar business that could host literary events.

“With the renaissance downtown, I feel like there’s a vibrant community of creatives in Macon,” Harrington said. “And I felt like there was enough momentum to support an indie bookstore.”

She hosts five to six events per month, including several book clubs. The anti-banned book club, in particular, garnered a “heartening” number of participants, Harrington said.

Part of Bear’s Books success is due to its popularity as not just a store, but a community hub close to the heart of downtown.

Located on Forsyth Street, just down the road from the iconic H&H Soul Food Restaurant, diners often wander into Bear’s Books while waiting for their food, Harrington said. 

The shop has also served as a venue for events such as baby showers, birthday parties and even engagement photoshoots. 

Harrington brings pop-up book events to other local fixtures, too, such as the Historic Macon Foundation, Longleaf Distillery, Douglass Theater, Orangetheory Fitness and Satterfield’s Barbecue.

“It’s much beyond just selling things,” Harrington said, which is why she said loves what she does.