Louisville has a kick-ass bookstore. I like visiting the place once a month or so They run local author forums. The staff READS in a way that makes me and my goal of a book a week or 20K pages a quarter look like a lightweight. I went in a month ago and said I was reading Alone Together and had a 10 minute conversation on how the internet is creating a bigger demand for long form readers and people are joining the in-person book club because people are starting to get burnt out on social media. Good luck having that sort of interaction in anything other than an independent establishment that invests in its employees.

They also carry magazines, foreign newspapers, local schlock, NYT highbrow and will order just about everything and anything that they can get an ISBN number from. I've intentionally bought from them rather than Amazon because they earned my patronage. The one drawback is that I have to go there on the way home from work and getting in and out during those times is a bit rough.

They also do partner projects with the Library. They used to run a writer's forum to help kids write better school papers but I an not sure they do that any more. After all if they are in the library they might end up buying books as well as borrowing.

Bookstores can and do compete. They have to offer something that a website can't: people. That requires investment in your staff, the community and building more people reading books.