Dear inane reporters; the margin for book stores is extremely easy to find out. Book stores in California selling new goods are forbidden from charging more than the cover price without a huge amount of notification to the consumer that they are paying more than suggested retail, and even then, they can still turn around and sue the business owner.
Raising costs means less margin. Less margin means less profit. With book stores, the profit is already razor thin, and raising costs on them simply eliminates the profit. Bye bye jobs.
I know, simple economics is so HARD to understand...
Which probably explains all the non-book items at the front of most stores, the "educational" toys and puzzes, the calendars, journals, candy, tea and other items used to pad their profits. Not saying I disagree with what they're trying to do, but it explains a lot...