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I can't think of a single situation in which a monopoly is a good thing - for the consumer, at any rate. Yes, it's true anyone could open up an ebook store - the question is whether they could make a profit on it. Possibly, if it aimed at a very specialised niche market but going head-to-head against Amazon? Unlikely. As Shack70 says, Amazon attacks competitors agressively, and with the advantages it already has by being able to negotiate prices, there really isn't much chance of any independent store lasting against them, any more than most of the independent bookstores (in the UK at least) have managed to hold out against the combined weight of large chains and now supermarkets.
I don't agree with Agency pricing, either, mind you - the publishers had it their own way for too long. It is, however, long, long past time for quite a number of companies to be reined in - really, when a company gets bigger and richer than some of the countries in which it operates, it ceases to be controllable.
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