The Associated Press has reported that Laredo, Texas, “home to nearly a quarter-mil- lion people as well as high rates of illiteracy … will become the largest U.S. city without a bookstore. After the local B. Dalton closes, the nearest bookseller will be 150 miles away in San Antonio.”
Curiously, brick-and-mortar bookstores are show- ing surprisingly little interest in an area with “high rates of illiteracy.”
And, of course, even on the cold, clay streets of Laredo, FedEx and Amazon will deliver to your home virtually any book – infinitely more books than were ever found in the local B. Dalton’s – within 24 hours, if you use a few clicks on your computer.
Yet one more example of market failure.