I wrote a post last week which led to some great discussion, including probably the most contrarian comment I’ve ever received from a reader. The post, When the Web is a Small Business’s Enemy, is about how the Internet is not always sunshine and opportunity for small businesses. My post was mainly about the story of a small card/game shop that’s shutting down in this area, but I also mentioned independent book and music stores as other examples.

If you found that post interesting, you’ll want to check out The Internet is Killing Independent Bookstores, written by Chris Smith on the Natural Search Blog. Here’s a small part of a thoughtful post:

…the internet and the modern world have changed the whole game. The sport of hunting for particular books in little, out-of-the-way shops has been replaced by shopping from home on the computer from sites like eBay, Amazon, and Google Products. One no longer needs to visit shops in person to be able to browse their inventories, and one can easily see comparative pricing of books from many sources. The concept of “artificial scarcity” and “perceived rarity” have been destroyed when you can easily see a dozen sellers offering identical copies of any given book. It’s now all devolved down into buying from the cheapest source.