Spartanburg, S.C. — Hub City Bookshop in downtown Spartanburg is reporting higher sales and stronger event participation even as a former free parking lot across the street has become an active construction site.
While some nearby businesses have reported falling sales after the parking loss, the bookstore has seen the opposite trend, with book club interest also rising. Sales had been climbing before the local Barnes and Noble closed in early 2025, and the shop gained another boost after that closure.
Hub City Bookshop is a full-service independent bookstore run by the Hub City Writers Project. It operates in a historic Masonic Temple downtown and specializes in Southern literature, literary fiction and nonfiction, history, children books, and Hub City Press titles. Proceeds fund creative writing education, community outreach, and publishing.
The shop hosts more than 100 events a year, most free and open to the public, and runs multiple book clubs. After the national chain closed, staff updated inventory to add more genre fiction aimed at younger readers.
Pages on Pine, a used bookstore under Spartanburg County Public Libraries, also saw more customers after the Barnes and Noble closing. Downtown construction tore up the nearby free lot in January, but organizers say shoppers have figured out how to keep supporting local stores around the disruption.
