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Not really, margins on coffee are extremely high and a library-like environment can attract paying customers if you play it right.

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Independent bookstores stay afloat if they own their building, usually.

At least the ones I know of that have remained open are in a building owned by the owner (so they don't have to pay rent).

A business that is only reasonably profitable if it doesn't have to pay rent is not really profitable. If the owner owns the building, he might as well rent out the place and get majority of income without doing any work. The bookstore is just a hobby on top of rental income, which he chooses to plow into his own bookstore.

The dirty secret of small businesses is that a vast number of them are not really profitable, because something is not counted on the books - either rent, or labor, or other things.

Being in hospitality is not high margin. You want people to buy a coffee and breakfast or lunch and go away fairly quickly.

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