> Perhaps the whole industry should start subsidizing physical bookstores My understanding was that this is how the printed book industry works already. Book s

> Perhaps the whole industry should start subsidizing physical bookstores My understanding was that this is how the printed book industry works already. Book stores are filled with books they didn't pay for -- the publishers are the ones covering nearly the entire inventory cost of the store! Only once a book is sold does the store pay the publisher the wholesale rate for that copy, while unsold copies are returned to the publisher to be shipped to a different store or destroyed. What I've seen on publishers' websites are examples like a $12 wholesale cost for a $20 retail book. That's a 40% margin, on top of the publishers subsidizing the existence of the store by providing the inventory for free. The reason your comment is being downvoted is probably because they can't "start" subsidizing margins when they already are.