> Why is that? I still see stores for board games and the likelihood of making a profit from a board game is abysmal. Blick Art seems to be doing well enough. Even Barnes and Nobles had a turnaround

I mean big box retailers.

A major aspect for big box retailers is real estate. Joann's, Michaels, Toys-R-Us, etc would often take either long term leases or outright own the property of the store itself.

A smaller/local business targeting hobbyists can concentrate primarily on customer experience and inventory, because they generally do not try to enter the asset speculation game as well.