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I grew up in Italy, and still spend considerable time there. Italy has an extremely protected retail system - every local store has to get approval and approval is conditional on existing levels of competition - in other words, if there is another bookstore in town, you won't get a permit to open your own.
The result? Plenty of mom-and-pop bookstores - one in every small town (and we have plenty of municipalities below 2,000 people). But try to buy something in there... if it's not Stig Laarson or Dan Brown, you have to order it. And the bookstore owner is not likely to be cooperative, because they are so protected by the system that they don't need to please their customers.
When I first came to the US and stepped into a Border's store, I thought I was in heaven.
Give me the big corporation with broad selection and cheap titles, I am all for that. I feel under no obligation to subsidize someone else's trade.
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