I live nearby to Arundel books in Seattle. It is my favourite store now. You go in and it's staffed by people who know and love books. I mentioned in passing I was surprised not to see any Houseman on the shelf (plenty of Auden, a decent selection Brautigan, Sexton and Plath.) I had just overlooked it. Every time I go in I see a book I want to buy (Calvino, Eco, Burroughs, etc.)

Staffed and stocked by people who like good books for people who like good books.

Leigh's Books in Sunnyvale (if you're a Bay Area person) is like this too. They were still there before the pandemic. Hope they're still there. It's staffed and stocked by people who know books. Bad Animal in Santa Cruz has an eclectic collection that stocks decent texts, but maybe not as wide a selection as Leigh's and Arundel. But if you're in Santa Cruz they're worth checking out. Go for the books, stay for the veggie foie gras.

Towards the end of Borders in both Santa Cruz and Palo Alto, it seemed there were a LOT of self-help, travel and outdated tech books. Seemed to be all stuff that people used the web to read, but the chain was going to waste shelf-space on it until someone bought it. The coffee shop in my local Borders in Santa Cruz back in the day was as good as you would find in corporate coffee. A decent cuppa joe for me and an extremely nice hot chocolate for the kiddo. But we never went there for the books. We went to Logos down the street (now sadly closed) and wandered up to Borders (also closed) for a very decent hot chocolate.

Good to see //someone// worked out a business model that worked.