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It really doesn't matter whether or not it is ethical. It doesn't matter what is a good idea or bad. The question is, how can stores best deal with it? As one of the links suggested, people may be more likely to use a big box store as a showroom than an independent store. The more faceless the store is, the more people are likely to use the store as a showroom. The big box stores are pretty faceless.
Paper book sales will decrease, but I doubt they will decrease the percentage of the book market that vinyl records has of the music market. Independent bookstores will be better suited to meeting that smaller market. A hostile attitude toward e-readers and the people who read e-books doesn't help. There are those who read only paper books, and there are those who only read e-books. But you don't want to turn away those who read both. I've seen anti-Kindle posters in bookstores, and I don't think that accomplishes anything. The people who already read only paper books don't need persuading, and it isn't likely to persuade those who only read e-books. The only effect that I can see is that it might turn off those who buy both paper and e-boooks. A business is free, of course, to drive business away if they wish. But that person with in your store with an e-reader under their arm would be better viewed as a potential customer then as a certain non-customer. A bald man in a comb store is a non-customer. A person with an e-reader in a book store, maybe not.
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