Although it begins with the inaccurate statement that U.S. independent bookstores are in a mode of "crash and burn," the New York Times praises France for its strong network of 2,500 bookstores for a population of 62 million, helped in large part by a fixed price law that applies to books and e-books and allows a maximum discount of 5%. 
While fixed prices for books have helped independent booksellers in other markets, like Germany, France also has a government program and a private program funded mainly by publishers to make grants and loans to booksellers. In the case of L'Usage du Monde, a bookstore in Paris that celebrates its first anniversary in August, such help was essential. "We couldn't have opened our bookstore without the subsidies we received," co-owner Katia Perou said. "And we couldn't survive now without fixed prices."
The contrast to the Anglophone world is apparent in Paris: the English-language bookstore Village Voice is closing in July because of "the deep discounting of Amazon and sellers of e-books," the Times wrote.
