That’s why online retailers—who don’t have to worry about the cost of “brick and mortar” storefronts—are doing pretty well nowadays. I’m surprised that Amazon didn’t buy into partial ownership of Borders, because that would have made it possible for Borders to be selling the Amazon Kindle as far back as 2008!
That would have made them liable for collecting sales taxes and Amazon is in a war with several states over that issue. They are even closing a distribution center in Texas to avoid the tax issue.
Then again, having a property storefront might have required the to pay sales tax in most states.