Sales of books in traditional stores is fast declining and greater number of consumers are buying books at discounters such as Target, Costo and Wal-Mart. Book chains Borders and Barnes & Noble are both initiating major restructuring to improve things after dissapoining quarterly results. Borders will be remodeling some of its stores and Barnes & Noble will be shutting down its warehouse that it uses for its Internet sales.

Barnes & Noble’s decision to shut down the warehouse it uses exclusively for its Internet business is a telling sign that the company has effectively given up hope of matching Amazon’s book-selling volume over the Internet. Amazon doesn’t officially disclose the percentage of its $10.7 billion in annual sales that it derives from books. But industry followers estimate the number at 50%, or over $5 billion. That’s about 10 times Barnes & Noble’s online book sales, which stood at $459 million a year ago, according to the company’s 2005 annual report.