Bookstores don't pay for their books until they're sold, and they return the ones that aren't - so yes, they do have high overhead in terms of square footage /

Bookstores don't pay for their books until they're sold, and they return the ones that aren't - so yes, they do have high overhead in terms of square footage / labour, but don't necessarily have the same inventory issue that other retailer operations to. A more interesting question to ponder would be at what point in time (if ever) will it stop making sense for a publisher to print books and send them to bookstores? My guess is for niche publishers this has already happened, and it will never happen to the mass-books - it's the middle guys who will have to make the call sometime in the coming years...