The Borders in Mission Valley is truly a book lovers heaven compared to most of our book stores here in San Diego. It is fairly large with a good selection of popular titles of both books and magazines as well as music. Rarer titles will still have to be ordered but the self-serve kiosks allow easy lookup to determine availability of titles, and the staff is friendly if you do need to order a title.
The children's area is in the back and good size with area to sit down with your little one for browsing before purchasing. There are also kid-sized tables and chairs to sit on as well as the carpeted area. The parenting section is also located in the kid section, making for easy browsing for the parent while the little one(s) are happily choosing their own selections. There are also good accoustics in the store so if you are in there without children and looking for a bit of quiet you usually cannot hear the children's area from other parts of the store.
This one does have chairs scattered throughout the sections, though usually in busy times these are always taken and perhaps they could use a few more of those.
There is a nice little cafe attached to the store with sandwiches, coffees, teas and treats. You can take your book selections into the cafe to browse as you snack. The cafe was recently remodeled and looks very nice.
The line to check out can get quite long, although they do their best to keep adequate staffing and keep the line moving, even at peak times.
I highly recommend this store.
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