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I don't know that it's a purely coastal, college town phenomenon, but yes, you do need a big enough potential customer base to make it work. Basically, to be successful you need a customer community, so yes, it's very much a niche thing. Really, if you think about it, an indie store has to solve a problem that their customers have. It could be things like bringing together a community, providing book recommendations or any number of things.
From a business point of view, you need a location that is easily accessed by your target customer base and you need to be able to control your costs since it's a low margin business. Having multiple potential income streams is a big plus as well.
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