diff --git a/src/components/Contributors/index.tsx b/src/components/Contributors/index.tsx
index 4d94945de28..a3c3a55ec83 100644
--- a/src/components/Contributors/index.tsx
+++ b/src/components/Contributors/index.tsx
@@ -17,22 +17,35 @@ type AllContributorsRc = {
   contributors: (Contributor & { contributions?: string[] })[]
 }
 
-// Read `.all-contributorsrc` (bot-maintained) once at module load.
-const raw = readFileSync(join(process.cwd(), ".all-contributorsrc"), "utf-8")
-const { contributors: rawContributors } = JSON.parse(raw) as AllContributorsRc
-
-// Trim to the fields the card actually renders and shuffle once per SSG worker.
-const shuffledContributors: Contributor[] = shuffle(
-  rawContributors.map(({ login, name, avatar_url, profile }) => ({
-    login,
-    name,
-    avatar_url,
-    profile,
-  }))
-)
+let shuffledContributors: Contributor[] | undefined
+
+// Read `.all-contributorsrc` (bot-maintained) on first render and cache.
+// Deferred (not module-load) so non-Next bundlers like Storybook can import
+// this module without evaluating Node's `fs`.
+const getShuffledContributors = (): Contributor[] => {
+  if (!shuffledContributors) {
+    const raw = readFileSync(
+      join(process.cwd(), ".all-contributorsrc"),
+      "utf-8"
+    )
+    const { contributors: rawContributors } = JSON.parse(
+      raw
+    ) as AllContributorsRc
+
+    shuffledContributors = shuffle(
+      rawContributors.map(({ login, name, avatar_url, profile }) => ({
+        login,
+        name,
+        avatar_url,
+        profile,
+      }))
+    )
+  }
+  return shuffledContributors
+}
 
 const Contributors = ({ contributors }: ContributorsProps = {}) => (
-  <ContributorsView contributors={contributors ?? shuffledContributors} />
+  <ContributorsView contributors={contributors ?? getShuffledContributors()} />
 )
 
 export default Contributors