Sounds true because (at least in some cases) it is. All the books I've bought in the past 20 years have been online, mostly from Amazon. When I was a kid my town had at least six bookstores that I can remember. Barnes and Noble and Borders came and they were fantastic but caused all the locals to close up within a decade. Then Borders closed and a few years later Barnes and Noble was gone. I go there today and there aren't any bookstores. Nobody thinks a bookstore in a small town is a viable business in the Amazon era, so none have been opened.

Big cities I'm sure still have some, they have enough population to support them even if most people don't patronize them.

Some of the ones in the Bay Area were quietly acquired by Barnes & Noble in the last 12 months.

I hope that's not a national trend, but I suspect it is.

On top of that, Barnes & Noble is closing their larger locations, and replacing them with tiny ones that simply aren't compelling if you're looking for something specific.

people give books away here in California with "tiny house" library stands. In a major college town, previously full of specialty and trade bookstores, now very empty.