And sometimes, the free market works just fine.

At one of the 385 incestuous, cross-referential blogs in her link farm, Canadian Intelligent Design whacknut Denyse O'Leary bemoans the loss:

Anchor Christian retailer Mitchell’s goes into receivership

... The high Canadian dollar and the growth of Internet retailing were blamed.

Or maybe just the fact that the market for scientifically illiterate crap, overpriced superstitious twaddle, and hideously tacky Jesus bobblehead dolls is drying up. There's that possibility, too.

My own view (Denyse O’Leary’s) is that one other factor is are [sic] at work here: Big box stores are less antsy than they used to be about carrying “religious” material, just as big newspapers became less antsy about reviewing it. The up side was lower prices, but the down side may be the loss of the specialty Christian bookstore as a cultural centre.

Denyse has a point, since it's not clear where regular churchgoers -- you know, those people who go to church regularly -- where those people who can be found in church on Sundays, might want to occasionally get together, culturally speaking.

Yes, Denyse, that's a puzzler, all right. A real stumper. Let us know if you come up with any thoughts on that one.