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IMO, gun shows are declining in popularity because they're no longer a place to find deals. Loads of junk guns, and the few normal firearms I do see are way overpriced. There are no deals on ammo that I've seen anywhere recently, and from what I can tell, people won't pay the inflated prices being asked. Once folks go to a couple shows and see squat, they see no value in paying the entrance fee to go look anymore. This is by no means a local phenomenon, as the last show I went to (the Pasadena show a couple months back) had the same problems. I took my girlfriends dad to see if we could find a Bersa Thunder .380, and found one... and the asking price was a ridiculous $479! It was nearly a ghost town in there, and the number of vendors was obviously nowhere near normal.

With big box stores catching up on inventory and offering better prices, the gun shows have lost their base. Vendors aren't offering anything people want at reasonable prices, so people stopped going. Vendors aren't making any money because no one is going anymore, so they don't go either. What you see at the shows now is the result of these two things. I saw more non-gun booths at the Pasadena than I did gun booths. It left me with no desire to return.

Once sanity returns to the firearms market (which it slowly appears to be doing) and vendor stocks are built back up, I'd guess that gun shows will be a good place to go again. Until supply and demand even themselves out, we might see more shows closing down due to lack of interest.