Welcome to another QRD.  I don't think I've done this many issues in a year since 1995, so things are a little exciting in a way.  Anyway, this issue I interviewed a bunch of indie record store owners.  A lot of the questions I asked these folks were about my position as a small label owner, but they will hopefully be of interest to you as well.  I'm including a couple of definitions below that may be of help to those lacking in a little bit of the jargon.

Our cover art this issue is a photo of a scale model of aQuarius recOrds.

It's also probably worth mentioning the following interviews we did in the past:
Emily Flake (CTD) interview (March 2003)
Kimber Lanning (Stinkweeds) interview (March 2000)
Kimber Lanning (Stinkweeds) interview (August 2006)

hrt
Brian John Mitchell

Big-box Store - A term that refers to a style of physically large chain store & by extension to the company behind the store. The terms superstore, megastore, & supercenter also refer to these retail establishments. 

Brick and mortar (B&M) - A company which possesses a building for operations. 

Distributor (distro) - The middleman between the manufacturer and retailer. After a product is manufactured, it may be warehoused or shipped to the next echelon in the supply chain, typically either a distributor, retailer, or consumer. 

Mom & Pop - A common colloquial expression for a single-family operated business with few (or no) employees other than the owners.

One-stop - A wholesaler that gets products from many different distributors into one central ordering system for retail stores.