As does Old Saratoga Books in Schuylerville, NY
Comstocks is in Auburn, not Seattle.
A local pet supply store near me had a couple cats - really friendly, and I loved it. Sadly, the place went out of business.
The defunct Acres of Books in Long Beach, CA, housed an aged cat who had the run of the store; she navigated around bookshelves and customers’ feet with ease. She delighted everybody. (The store was a landmark, with customers such as Ray Bradbury. The redevelopment project that closed it was quashed and the building sits unused and intact.)
A Petco in Lawndale, about 10 miles from Long Beach, had a resident cat last time I was in there. 
Since the Mod has declared this thread anecdotal , the rather infamous Red Caboose hobby shop on 45th St in Manhattan has had at least one shop cat for going on at least 25 years (probably not the same cat), from at least it’s 1980s 4th floor location to it’s current basement dwelling incarnation. I was there in March of this year, the cat was also there (and Alan too), and while the cat was friendly enough and amendable to being petted by strangers, it seemed more interested in patrolling the store aisles.
You’d think there must have been a Border’s or Barnes & Nobles that had a store cat at some time.
I didn’t declare it had to be anecdotal, that’s just the way it was shaping up. Anyone who has facts is welcome to post 'em.
They all got Nooks?
God, thank you for brining this up. I have mentioned this to people and they look at me like I have three eyes.
I took it one step further though, and asked if they had noticed that used book stores are run by lesbians with cats. If I could get some more data points on the lesbians part that would be great.
Internet pussy killed the bookstore cat.
My daughter used to work in an independent used book store for a while. It had two cats, Simon and Schuster (called Shu). They had the run of the place. Shu was a DSH grey tabby, and Simon was a longhair colorpoint. Shu was in charge of vermin control, while Simon was in PR. Simon could usually be found draped over a customer’s shoulder, while they browsed the stacks. When the store went out of business, a long time customer took the cats, who sort of missed customers coming in all day, but felt that being able to sleep with people in their beds was worth the trade off.
The shop owner’s daughter occasionally worked in the store, too…and yes, she was a lesbian, though she wasn’t the one who found and took in the cats.
See now, that was funny 
And mine is Both! Yay!
Seriously, though, what else do you expect? A learned paper on The Decline of Felis Catus in American Bookstores, 1980-2010?
Sniff, sniff…
I smell grant money!
I think that the real factual answer is that there are fewer book store cats because there are fewer independent book stores. Most book stores, even used book stores, are part of a chain, and chains don’t like little quirks like having a store cat. The old style independent book store owner was stereotypically at least a little bit odd, and was quite likely to be very odd indeed. The old style owner wouldn’t care if having a store cat or dog would discourage a few customers, but a chain store will.
I don’t know if Portland’s Powells currently has a cat (you’d think they’d have room for quite a few), but there is a nice tribute to “Fup” on their website.
I love cats, but I’m allergic to them.
You can imagine how I’d feel about curling up with a nice used book from a store that allowed cats to roam freely. In fact, when my clients bring in their tax documents, I can tell some of the cat owners because I’ll start sneezing just from the cat dander on the papers they’ve brought in.
In an environment where book sellers are under so much pressure from online and electronic sales, I imagine that even a small demographic like me is more than they can afford to lose.
You still go? It’s a weird thought to think we may have run into each other and never known.
As far as I’m concerned those chain-store executives are a bunch of jerks. In the 20th Century, no less, cats have appeared everywhere. They even accompanied the U. S. Army, Navy, and Army Air Forces in World War II. If they’re good enough for the U. S. Military they’re good enough for bookstores of whatever genre. 
And don’t forget post offices and farms–for the same reason. Better cats than rodents.
I can understand this. I used to play a collectible card game, where players would trade cards back and forth. Some people smoked, and the smoke smell would just ooze out of the cards. I got to the point where I’d sniff decks of cards before I started flipping through them, to see if they were smoky.
I used to frequent arcades, too…and I’d avoid any arcade that allowed smoking. This is definitely one reason why chains don’t allow cats.
I’ve been in a few public libraries that had cats, too.
Ha! I came here to mention the Dusty Bookshelf, a wonderful used-book store a block from Raven’s. DB has just one cat, but it’s a sweetie. My three-year-old pesters me to go there so he can play with the cat whenever we take a walk down Mass.