When a chain feels local

More and more, I notice that my local Barnes and Noble cafe feels like a locally-owned cafe, even though it's a chain retailer serving coffee and food from chain vendors (Starbucks and Cheesecake Factory).

I spent a couple hours there today, reading and writing, and I ended up people watching and eavesdropping a little too. This is what I saw:

• three people planning a community event
• a group of native and non-native Spanish speakers who meet up every week to speak Spanish (maintaining cultural ties for the native speakers and providing practice for the non-native speakers)
• two young women chatting and catching up with each other
• two middle-aged men playing chess
• an elderly couple reading magazines
• the usual scattering of solo people (including me), writing, reading, or typing

There are plenty of tables, open space, good lighting, and what I think is optimal background noise (quiet and scattered enough that it's not distracting, but loud enough to make the atmosphere feel vibrant), and there's a community-centered feeling about the place (instead of cookie cutter chain).

Usually I'm an advocate of shopping and eating at locally-owned places, but the closest locally-owned cafe to me has limited seating and I would feel bad ordering only coffee and taking up a table for two hours. Instead, that local cafe is my spot for getting coffee to go or going out to lunch with a friend and Barnes and Noble is my spot for sitting down and working.