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It really depends--many businesses are not inclined to make their business practices known, and unless you have access to their figures, you never really know what the reasons behind their pricing are.
Sometimes manufacturers force retailers to get their goods from local resellers/wholesalers, the 'authorised dealers'. They will almost always be more expensive. The single book you found might have not have come from the same source as Amazon at all. This is where some retailers resort to 'grey imports', which is perfectly legal, but sometimes not the ideal arrangement for both the retailer and the customer.
Amazon is pretty much a posh version of ebay these days. It's become more and more of a selling platform as much as it is its own warehouse/online retailer. Not all things sold there are held in the Amazon warehouse or are even genuine, like those fake eclipse glasses that flooded the states in August.
It would be interesting to see what happens in Amazon Australia, and even as a retailer, I'm quite excited at the opportunities it presents because it's a powerful marketing channel.
Of course, a lot of us just like to see and touch the products in a nice shop front and talk to a human. For some people, it is part of their social outlet, hanging out at their local store or shopping mall. So that's likely to be sticking around for a long time, even if it plays a different role in retail.
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