One anecdote to back up
One anecdote to back up Jason's conjecture about how it's the shoe stores/industry;
I completely dismissed barefoot/minimalist running until I spoke with someone at my local running store whom I respected. He was wearing vffs, and he was not in any way arrogant; he just told me his story in a pragmatic and skeptical way. I had originally come in to order another pair of my extra wide asics gel kayano 17s. Needless to say, the asics never got purchased.
Then I went back home and googled and read and tried it and voila. However, if I had not found such good online resources (and ones that were not all, um, hippie-dippie fruity, with all due respect and love for the hippies), the idea might have faded quickly from my mind.
So I think in order to reach people like me (former orthotics wearing, cushioned shoe, recreational runner) it takes the bf community in place to get people involved and starting slowly and carefully.