[toyg]

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 only 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.

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't actually happened yet on the scale we've seen in the UK.