Accumulation below an unattained supremum

If a nonempty real set $A$ has finite supremum $s$ and $s\notin A$, then every interval $(s-\epsilon ,s)$ contains infinitely many elements of $A$. Otherwise its finitely many elements have a largest value $m<s$; all remaining elements are at most $s-\epsilon$, making $\max (m,s-\epsilon )<s$ an upper bound. The interval cannot be empty either, by the defining approximation property of a supremum. Thus failure to attain a finite supremum forces accumulation from below.