????《華爾街日報》（The Wall Street Journal）周一報道稱，巴諾（Barnes & Noble）計劃在未來十年關閉旗下三分之一的零售書店。關停似乎不可避免。和其他零售商一樣，這家連鎖書店在數字世界里步履踉蹌，讀者日益轉向電子書和在線折扣。巴諾的救星可以說是它推出的Nook平板電腦，但由于亞馬遜（Amazon）、蘋果（Apple）和谷歌（Google）等公司的競爭，Nook在圣誕假期的銷量較一年前出現下滑。

????在互聯網時代經營實體書店確實很難，但新技術只是巴諾面臨的問題之一。美國如今越來越希望東西變得更小，巴諾的書店在這個國家顯得太大了。

????金融危機過后，美國人喜歡上了小尺寸，從汽車到住房，一切東西都是如此。就連龐大的沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）商店都瘦身了。城市土地學會（Urban Land Institute）高級研究員埃德?麥克馬洪說，這個世界上最大的零售商在1962年開設折扣店，店面面積平均為108,000平方英尺。到1988年，沃爾瑪開設超市（Supercenter），平均為185,000平方英尺。但十年后，沃爾瑪開設社區店（Neighborhood），平均僅為42,000平方英尺，比超市小了兩倍多。2011年，沃爾瑪商店繼續減肥，其便利店（Express）平均只有15,000平方英尺。

????隨著美國中產階級離開城市遷往郊區，倉儲式零售與其他很多零售商的做法不謀而合。麥克馬洪說，從1960年到2000年，零售面積增加至原來的近十倍，從每人4平方英尺提高到38平方英尺。零售面積的增速比零售額的增速快了五倍。但金融危機使這種擴張戛然而止。現在有10億多平方英尺的零售面積空置，其中大多曾是倉儲式零售商做生意的地方。

????除了沃爾瑪以外，向小看齊的趨勢受到了幾個因素的推動。有些因素已經討論過，其他的尚未提及：人們結婚的年齡進一步推遲；美國城市的發展速度在幾十年里首次超過郊區；剩余的郊區充斥著令人昏昏欲睡的商業中心地帶，正在被改造成適于步行的城市空間。

????當然，互聯網在實體店變小方面發揮了重要作用。麥克馬洪說，正如超市導致大量本地商店倒閉一樣，網絡購物也影響到了倉儲式零售商。

????但那些幸存的本地商店如今再次興盛起來。這一點在圖書市場上或許最為明顯。大型連鎖店遭遇破產和商店關停的那些年里，個體書店的數量在過去幾年里大體上保持平穩。美國書商協會（American Booksellers Association）是支持個體書店的行業協會。該組織表示，自從金融危機以來，其會員的數量基本上保持不變，2008年是1,524個，到2012年是1,567個。那些年里確實有很多書店關門歇業，新開張的書店就算有也非常之少。但在2009年，新書店紛紛涌現。去年，全美有40家書店開張。

????但這些數字遠遠比不上巴諾的書店數量。到2009年為止，巴諾每年都會新開30家書店，甚至更多。但在大型連鎖書店關閉旗下分店的時候，個體書店卻紛紛涌現，這個事實在很大程度上說明了向小看齊和本地化的趨勢。

????Barnes & Noble expects to close up to a third of its retail book stores over the next decade, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The closures seem inevitable. Like other retailers, the chain has struggled in a digital world, where readers increasingly turned to e-books and online discounts. Its savior is arguably its Nook products, but sales during the holiday season fell from a year earlier amid competition from the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Google.

????Indeed, it's hard to run a bookstore in the Internet age, but new technology is only part of Barnes & Noble's (BKS) problems. Its stores simply got too big in a nation that increasingly prefers things -- well, smaller.

????Since the financial crisis, Americans have warmed to smaller sizes in everything from cars to homes. Even massive Wal-Mart stores (WMT) have downsized. In 1962, the world's biggest retailer opened discount stores averaging 108,000 square feet, says Ed McMahon, senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute. By 1988, Wal-Mart unveiled its Supercenters, averaging 185,000 square feet. But a decade later it opened its Neighborhood markets, which, at an average of 42,000 square feet, was more than two times smaller than its Supercenters. The chain went even smaller in 2011, with its Express stores averaging 15,000 square feet.

????The big box trend coincided with what many other retailers did as America's middle class left cities for the suburbs. Between 1960 and 2000, retail space rose ten fold -- growing from 4 to 38 square feet per person, McMahon says. Retail space grew five times faster than retail sales. The financial crisis put an abrupt end to that expansion. There is now more than 1 billion square feet of vacant retail space, mostly where big box retailers once did business.

????Beyond Wal-Mart, going small is being driven by several factors - some related, others unrelated: People are getting married later; U.S. cities are growing faster than suburbs for the first time in decades; the remaining suburbs, filled with sleepy strip commercial centers, are being turned into walkable urban places.

????Of course, the Internet has played a big role in shrinking physical stores as well. Just as superstores put many local stores out of business, online shopping is hurting big box retailers, McMahon says.

????But some local stores that managed to stick around are now thriving again. This is perhaps most evident in the market for books. In the years where big-box chains saw bankruptcies and store closures, the number of independents have generally stayed steady during the past few years. The American Booksellers Association, a trade organization that supports independents says that since the depths of the Great Recession, it has had roughly the same number of members -- 1,524 in 2008 to 1,567 in 2012. Stores did indeed close during those years with few if any new openings, but in 2009, new ones sprung up. Last year, 40 opened nationwide.

????That's far fewer than Barnes & Noble, which until 2009 opened 30 or more a year. But the fact that any indie stores are opening at a time when big-box chains are closing says a lot about being small and local.