A recent article by Publishers Weekly elaborates how booksales have endured in Puerto Rico through the devastation wrought by two hurricanes. As many homes in Puerto Rico have gone months or are still without power, books have been one of the few solaces in such trying times. As such, despite loss of infrastructure and core necessities, people continue to purchase books at a consistent rate.
John Orcutt, CEO of JR Blue Label Management (the largest bookseller operating in the Caribbean), states that Puerto Ricans have been reading more in the aftermath of the hurricanes and storms. Instead of suffering an expected 5%-10% loss of sales in October, the bookstore franchise Bookmark experienced a 57% sales increase from October 2016, followed by a 160% sales increase in November 2017 compared to November 2016.
Bookstore owners and booksellers have had experiences ranging from being unable to open to actually enjoying sizeable growth.
You can read the original Publishers Weekly article here.
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