[mewzilla]

The problem is, though, that the big boxes do dictate to a great extent what gets published. Like grocery stores and discount stores do with their shelf space.

Folks can always publish themselves on-line. E-books are an option.

[ritewingwarrior]

E-books are going to be more prevalent as time goes on. Pretty soon people will be publishing books electronically and even the large distributors will see sales fall.
Even for me who reads probably 50-100 books a year, I do not frequent smaller bookstores very much at all anymore, and tend to go through B&N two or three times a month. I still favor the bookstore to Amazon, because you can actually see interesting things you might not have before.
There is also the fact that the younger generation is simply not reading as much. Music, internet, and TV are a big draw for people's time. When you hear that American 'Idle' got more votes than the President, you know people aren't reading.

[GovernmentShrinker]

It's getting easier to publish via the print-to-order businesses, some of which can even produce hardcover editions. In the long run, that avenue will develop a lot more, and result in publication of a lot of books that would never have gotten published before as they have a very small target audience.