[fausto]

I don't have any problem with 'The Market' which is an abstraction anyway and I do understand people who shop amazon or big chains because it's cheaper, but I personally try to buy as much as possible in local businesses. I really have no solution for the crisis they seem to be in but I tend to note that those who remain in business and are going strong are the ones offering a real added value -- ie service, choice, knowledge, identity. To be quite honest, a lot of local shops do a terrible job: they sell the same things big chains do, only with less stocks and more expensive. Those ones I'm not sad to see go (and actually they usually are the first to go). The real sad thing is when good bookshop go bust -- because you don't only have to know what you are doing, you also have to know how you need doing it and basic business sense seems to be lacking from people animated with passion.
As for an homogene world, it's a fear and I think it's what it will remain to be. Your friends are right when they say there is more choice than before (because it's true, you can buy a wider variety of books now than twenty years ago) but they're missing the point entirely: bookshopping is not only about choice.
Regarding funding, I think there are more important things out there to subsidize than bookshops. Without even thinking about society as a whole, if we limit ourselves to literature, help for writers, translators or publisher seems more urgent.