RPGNow keeps saying that they are going to implement something along those lines for their print on demand products that they produce for various RPG companies, but last I heard they have not done so yet. Their idea was to sell print on demand books in bulk order to brick and mortar retailers at a reduce price so that those game stores could then mark up and make some money off of the products while still supporting the print on demand system. But then they have been talking about that for at least a couple of years or more now and it still hasn't happened yet (as I've been in contact with them and what I've heard from ICE is that they would love to see that happen and would be on board with it if it ever did).
But this certainly sounds like a good idea as well, if it is possible to get those print-on-demand books out there to gaming stores where a lot of purchases are made because someone sees something that looks "cool" and buys it suddenly (which is a large portion of the RPG game market's sales). That was how I got into Rolemaster and MERP in the first place was just such a purchase back in the early 1980's and I've been a loyal fan ever since. I spent several hundred dollars as a high school student and several hundred more as a college student once I moved to only a mile or two away from the store that I used to have to drive 45 minutes to get to when in high school (lived in a somewhat remote part of Michigan at the time).