Same Song, Different Verse

Met hubby for dinner.  Afterwards he went to do his thing at Academy, and I hit Barnes & Noble. 

I've been inside a lot of bookstores.  With the exception of the mom and pop establishments, they all feel like the same thing.  Carbon copies.  B&N, Borders, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton.  And I'm not talking about layout.  I'm talking about content.

To me, bookstores should be like department stores.  Target, KMart, Walmart - they're similar, but each one is still vastly different.  Ditto for stores like Bealls, Kohl's, Dillards, JC Penny - they're all selling clothing, but you don't see almost identical content.  Not like the major bookstores have.

Wonder why there can't be more variety?  More independent titles?  If they did, maybe one day I could overhear people say, "Let's go to B&N.  They have Red Rose titles there."