Dream Book Store

I did not spend space yesterday describing the clean, neat, tidy, well-lit and crowded BOOKOFF store. Uniform tall black shelving units crowded the length of the building space that formerly held new technical books for sale. The aisles were a little narrow for full-size, luxury-built Americans, I thought. Admittedly, I saw only one side of the store, but didn't notice any place to sit down or to set anything down. That had me musing once again on the fantasy ideal book shop that I've dreamed of for years. It's probably a concatenation of ones I've known all over the country.

Dusty, even dirty, darkish but with easy chairs by lamps on end tables ... a cat to leap into unoccupied laps and purr you into purchasing ... live potted plants ... a feeling of old, old books, old store perhaps run by a patient old person. Mismatched wooden book cases. A wood floor. A spiral iron staircase to a mezzanine overlooking the main floor. Coffee. Board games?

Baby Boomers, at least, probably want a combination old book nook/coffee house, like the "No Exit" cafe, where my fiance and I spent cozy wintry evenings in the early 60s, trying to like espresso, playing chess, reading poetry from the books scattered around the room.

OTOH, wouldn't it be way cool, rad, high rez or whatever is the current slang for the cat's pajamas, if the books were RFID tagged and the store had a computerized system, so the clerk could tell at a click if they had the book you were searching for AND where it was located? Maybe hand-held devices that could lead you to your selection, because even a computer's records can be wrong and books get moved?

Have I left out anything? What would your ideal used book store be like? Do younger generations prefer clean, efficient, no-frills experiences?