It would be very interesting to see statistics about this based on location. Traditional booksellers (and many other types of "small item" retailers) get a lot

It would be very interesting to see statistics about this based on location. Traditional booksellers (and many other types of "small item" retailers) get a lot of casual drop-in business, and fare much better where there's heavy pedestrian traffic. Consequently, places like the U.S. where many people live in sparse suburbs that require them to drive to the store, should be experiencing a much great loss of drop-in businesses like bookstores tend to be. [This certainly matches my impression; the area I live in, Tokyo, despite bookseller and publisher hardships (no place is really safe), still has a huge number of bookstores, with many to be found in any busy shopping area. The news stories I read about the U.S. on the other hand, make the situation there sound absolutely dire, with bookstores seemingly disappearing completely in some areas...]