With the exception of Apple, Costco, IKEA, and New York-scale independents (e.g. BH and the Strand) brick-and-mortar seems to be on a consistent trend of dying. Departmwnt stores like Sears, Macys, and JC Penney’s. Even Nordstrom is running into hurdles as it attempts to go private. Entertainment chains in particular have been dying — Virgin, Tower Records, Borders, Barnes and Nobles. Among BB‘s direct competitors, who else is around except for Fry’s? Circuit City and CompUSA have long since died. To blame it all on “bad money practices” seems simplistic, as if there weren’t intractable costs that caused them to turn to bad practices.