> removing B&N would allow small locally-owned bookstores to once again exist and thrive <
There were quite a few locally-owned bookstores in my neck of the woods before B&N came along. And they were - without exception - weird leftist book stores. I couldn’t get a commentary on the Gospels in any of them. But I could get ten different books written by Chairman Mao.
Yes, my local B&N carries books by the great murderer Mao. But it also carries Christian commentaries.
Just my two cents. If you live in a rural area, I’m betting your locally-owned bookstores weren’t quite as crazy.
Yes, the independent ones were largely Marxist oriented, in fact the most popular one was called “Revolution Books” and had a mural of Che Guevara on the front.
We used to have an excellent combination Christian bookstore and coffee shop in our neighborhood which specialized largely in Reformed Christian books. But they eventually went out of business.