So I had a couple of books that I wanted in dead tree, and one of them wasn't available in dead tree on Amazon, so I ordered both of them from Barnes and Noble with ship to store. I haven't been to a B&N in forever, and never to the one in Boise. It's in a part of Boise I've never been, but they have an REI and other yuppie stores in the area.
Anyway, in I go, and non-covid related, I thought brick and mortar bookstores were dying, but I had to do two laps around the large B&N dedicated parking lot to get a spot (maybe due to after Christmas). Covid related, I was shocked when I walked in. I haven't seen masks anywhere in these parts anymore other than maybe 1 in 20 people, even in some doctors offices. At the B&N? Fully 25% of the customers had them, and probably 80% of the staff. Since it wasn't 100% staff, I'm assuming there is no store policy, so this is just individual choice.
I thought I was in California in 2020 or something. This has to be cultural. I will say most of the customers and staff gave me the kind of vibe that, were it not for all the Winter clothing (that was definitely REI-ish) I would have thought I was back in Santa Barbara. This just must be a section of Boise that attracts all the Calido liberals, because it's way an outlier from anywhere else I go. I should have popped into the REI to see if they had the same masking going on.