The superstores took the intimacy out of books? Really? At both Barnes & Noble and Borders, there were plenty of places to sit and read, none of the sellers cared when you picked out a book and finished half of the thing while sippin' on a mocha frap, and the selection was amazing. I remember having to shop at those small book dealers before the big superstores came along, and it sucked. First off, there was no place to sit and browse through a book that you were interested in. Not that it would have mattered if there were - the staff at those places were always on your jock if they saw you reading anything more than the back cover. Seriously, they'd walk by every few minutes asking, "Are you interested in that book?" "Are you ready to check out?" "Can I help you with your purchase?" "Hey, what do you say we buy that book together?"
Secondly, those small stores were WAY overpriced. Back when I lived in Chapel Hill in the 90's, a Borders came into town and set up shop, prompting the small local bookstores to push this huge campaign about supporting the 'small, intimate bookstore' from the 'dangerous book giant'. It met with no success, partly because the staff at those places was so pushy, but mostly because you were paying more per book. In some cases, a lot more. And the selection sucked. If they didn't have it, they could order it, of course. You'd have to wait a week, though. Or you could waltz up to the 'dangerous book giant' and pick it up at that moment for a lot cheaper.
Yeah, tough decision.
Lastly, most of those places had really strict rules about food and beverage, and by "strict rules", I mean that you were told to g.t.f.o. if you had any. I suppose when you price your books so high that you need a second mortgage just to shop there, there is every reason to discourage folks from wandering in with a beverage. Not at the superstores. Not only do they have few rules governing food and beverages, they actually sell them there.
The small book business model blew chunks long before the superstores shut them down, and with teh interwebz so prevalent nowadays, those stores aint gonna fare much better than the big daddies. Worse, actually. Seriously, why go out and buy a book at some crappy little bookstore when you chill out at home and either download it or order it on Amazon for much cheaper? If worst comes to worst, I think most folks would either do that, or drive up to a remaining Barnes & Noble.