> There must be more going on, otherwise staff would make random picks of whatever they're into and fail to sell them - which is what happens to a lot of indies

> There must be more going on, otherwise staff would make random picks of whatever they're into and fail to sell them - which is what happens to a lot of indies. This was actually described in the article: "Next came the staff. Daunt shrunk Waterstones’ central office and fired half of the store managers. He gave those booksellers who remained almost complete autonomy over how to arrange their stores—from the windows to the signage to the display tables—but controlled the stock with a dictatorial zeal. Out went books you wouldn’t want to browse: reference, technical guides, legal textbooks." The choice and local culture from the on-the-ground booksellers comes from the layout of the store, but what could ever make it into the hands of the bookseller is centrally managed which is probably the biggest difference to an indie. Reducing the stock to things that are more likely going to be impulse buys probably has a lot to do with it, since it is really impossible to keep a wonderful reference book selection that is fun to browse and easy to take home. The only time I see that work is if it is extremely close to a university or it is a used bookseller. In the used bookseller case they get the reference books for a fraction of the cost and can list them online as well but they don't have to worry about the day to day events.