It used to be that independent bookstores in the US, especially used/antiquarian/rare book stores, had cats. You could wander around looking at stuff and occasionally a cat would stop by, but would rarely have good advice since they couldn’t read.
A fair number of these shops have closed their doors, but some remain. Recently, I’ve been to several used bookstores that have survived, but there don’t seem to be any cats anymore.
What happened? Is this a general trend in marketing ideas and the latest numbers indicate that cats provide a negative rate of return overall, or are there specific health code or liability issues which made Bill and Ann’s Rare Books and Quality Old-Time Tomes Shoppe insist that Bill take his cat home? Did too many customers get scratched?
A local women’s and children’s consignment shop where I take my old clothes does too - a part-Pekingese (I think) that’s smaller than my cats. So does one of the antique malls where I have a booth, although in this case, the dog won’t be a permanent fixture. She’s a pit bull puppy, and they don’t want to leave her at home alone, or outside, just yet. She’s a sweet, friendly not-so-little thing. They do have to keep an eye on her, because she will wander around the store otherwise, not a good thing when there are a lot of breakables around.
Ever heard of Oscar, the nursing home mascot who is uncannily accurate in predicting imminent death? A book was written about him called “Making Rounds With Oscar”.
There’s at least one bookstore in downtown Sacramento that had a very large, very friendly, shop cat last time I was there. I’ve also seen an office cat at a local junkyard (also very friendly).
You haven’t been to the Northwest. I know at least two bookstores in Seattle with pet cats, both of them used independent places. The above poster is right in that the reason you don’t see more bookstores with cats is that the bookstores themselves disappeared.
Although there are factual questions in the OP, I think that most replies to this will be either anecdotal or speculation (as they have been so far). This is probably better suited to IMHO.
I can remember one used bookstore in Calgary that had a cat, and I believe another in Edmonton had one. Another, in Calgary, had a hound dog (it was appropriately named “Baskerville Books”).
It’s been some years since I’ve been to these shops, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were no longer in business. Pity, because in all cases, it was nice when the animal stopped by to say hello while you were browsing.