90% of sales in the US might be direct, but that's misleading. That includes groceries, car tyres, beer, high end electronics, vehicles, snacks, sandwiches, coffees, newspapers, etc.
Relevant sales - hobby market sales - is a very different story.
And if you go to five game shops, in 3-4 of them you will see most of those stereotypes in the flesh.
Most game stores I've been in don't make a lot of money. They're typically started by two or three people who love gaming and playing games, and they sometimes have some significant seed money from another source, or they have connections that get them the storefront dirt cheap, usually through a relative of some kind. They typically fold when the seed money runs out or one of other partners decides to do something else. Or they get caught hard by a trend they didn't see coming, like seeing your entire wall of 3E merchandise turn into junk overnight.
Sidebar: Speaking of online sales vs. retail stores, especially in gaming, if it isn't too much to ask, @Morrus , do you feel like EnWorld sort of straddles the line between being part of (and certainly supporting) a community that needs more localized gaming businesses vs. being an actual online retailer that potentially takes away from that local business? (This isn't meant to be loaded question!) I know your site promotes a lot of indie gaming development that probably wouldn't get carried in most FLGSs, so there's probably less direct competition, but gamer wallets are ultimately finite. At the same time, this is easily one of the biggest international sites I've seen for promoting gaming discussion and encouraging local gaming communities to come together. Anyway, just wondering what your perspective was, if that's not stepping over a line.
Tabletops can't exist without communities. That's my favorite part of this particular branch of retail.