No need for stereotypes. As others mentioned, the UK is actually very much ahead of the curve in online and retail: big chains all but wiped out independents in the last 20 years, and with all the faffing about Waterstones, nobody said that they are the <i>only</i> bookstore chain left on the market (Blackwells is strictly limited to university areas, and WHSmith is a generic corner-shop business that sells books in some stores). Waterstones themselves went through painful restructuring, as the article said, built a half-decent online shop, and implemented an automated fidelity program that should give them invaluable insight in their core userbase.<p>Chances are that in Scandinavia, like in most continental countries, you actually have more than one national bookseller and a variety of independent local shops, which means consolidation hasn&#x27;t actually happened yet on the scale we&#x27;ve seen in the UK.