Attorneys used to sending a messenger to their local U.S Government Printing Office (GPO) bookstore to pick up a book they need urgently will have to adjust to the GPO's new "online only" ordering strategy. Citing "an overall decline in sales due to the dramatic increase in access to government information on the Internet and the shift from walk-in traffic at bookstores to purchases from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore," the GPO is closing all but one of its retail bookstores around the country by September 1, 2003. Orders can still be placed via the GPO's online bookstore.

The GPO will keep its main bookstore in the Washington, D.C. area open (though it will be "re-configured"). The GPO's Laurel, MD Wholesale Warehouse location will continue to service bookdealers picking up orders.

Many of the other stores have already been closed. The nine remaining stores will close in August 2003, as follows: August 1, 2003: Los Angeles, Denver, Pueblo, Detroit, and Milwaukee

August 29, 2003: Atlanta, Jacksonville, Houston, and Pittsburgh