A recent article on Globe and Mail states that publishers are going online to sell books directly to consumers, something that booksellers are scared of.

Why shouldn't booksellers see this as a threat to their online sales?  Simple - this revisits the recent push of manufacturers going online.  When manufacturers started seeing the Internet as a distribution and sales channel, resellers and distributors threw a fit.  But then companies such as Lexar showed that cooperative marketing could be achieved by selling at MSRP and providing links to other potential online sellers. 

Even if publishers are smart about this and follow those guidelines, you still say "but that is just one more site I have to compete with"?  Not wholly true.  Publishers can also do what manufacturers have done and bring marketing money to increase awareness of top products to the consumers...more than you or I could as a reseller.  In fact since the publisher is not promoting every book you carry, and not all publishers are going online, you still will have exclusive markets.  You will also benefit from those branding dollars being spent by the publisher in small percents.

Every forced change in a business model causes a short term opposition, however in this case, history (albiet a very short history) has shown that booksellers will win in the end - and consumers will too.