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SAN FRANCISCO — For nearly 30 years, Rhett Jackson owned one of the small, independent bookstores now embroiled in a lawsuit with Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc. 

He sold his store, The Happy Bookseller, in part, because he couldn’t keep up with the four large, chain stores that had popped up in Columbia, S.C. 

Jackson was the first witness Monday in the case of 26 independent booksellers who sued Barnes & Noble and Borders claiming the superstores get illegal deals and steep discounts from publishers. 

Jackson says his sales and profits dropped drastically after the chains came to town. By 1997, after all four stores had opened, Jackson was losing money. 

“I was so discouraged,” Jackson said during a break from testifying. “I was thinking of having a fire sale and quitting. If we’d been competing with them under the same rules ... we’d have no argument with them.” 

The smaller stores, which sued in 1998, claim the growth of large bookstore chains has cost them millions of dollars they are unable to recoup without the same discounts. “The defendants received special treatment for which there is no justification or defense,” said Douglas Young, a lawyer for the American Booksellers Association, which represents the independent booksellers. “This should not be an industry where only a couple of players are allowed to dictate the terms.” 

The chains deny the allegations, and tried unsuccessfully to get the case dismissed last month. 

U.S. District Judge William Orrick Jr. allowed the suit to go forward, but decided the independent booksellers cannot win damages if they prevail. He said it would be impossible to determine how much the independents were harmed by alleged anticompetitive practices. 

Daniel Petrocelli, Barnes & Noble’s lawyer, said the decline in independent stores has other causes, such as competition from online booksellers. 

“The book business has undergone a revolution in the past couple of decades,” said Barnes & Noble’s lawyer, said Petrocelli, best known for winning a wrongful-death suit against O.J. Simpson. He cited the rise of superstores, the spacious retail outlets that offer cafes and other services. 

“People are flocking to these stores, and naturally the plaintiffs are not happy about this,” he said in his opening statement. “Any decline in the plaintiffs’ businesses resulted from a heated and healthy market.” 

The American Booksellers Association says any secret deals would violate the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 enacted to prevent large businesses from using their purchasing power to gain market advantage.  

The association has about 3,000 members, down from its peak of 5,000 five years ago. Barnes & Noble and Borders operate 937 and 335 stores, respectively, and are expanding significantly in California. 

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks.