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American supporters of independent bookstores are often critical of corporate booksellers like Barnes & Noble and Borders Books And Music (the #1 and #2 book retailers in the U.S. as of 2005). They criticize these chain stores for dominating the bookselling industry with their large stores, discount marketing, and sales of non-book materials like CDs and DVDs . The aggressive growth and marketing efforts of such chains are often blamed for driving independent bookstores out of business. Independent bookstores also face competition from mass merchants and discount department stores like Wal-Mart , Target Corporation and Kmart , as well as from smaller retailers like grocery and Drug Store chains. Bookstore Tourism , a grassroots effort and marketing tool initiated in the U.S. in 2003, is aimed at raising the visibility of independent bookstores by promoting them as a group travel niche. While many independent booksellers sell books online, large numbers of American book shoppers buy from Web -based booksellers like Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com . Although online bookselling has taken some business away from independent bookstores, it has also allowed them to sell their titles to a larger audience, and online sellers of used and rare books often unavailable from other sources have benefited substantially. Some well-known independent bookstores in the United States include:
Two well known independent bookstores that have closed their doors since the late 1990s are '' Printers Inc. Bookstore '' in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California (2001), and '' Midnight Special '' in Santa Monica , CA (2004). SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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