R.I.P. Fry's Electronics

A little over a year ago we were TV shopping and decided to stop by a Fry's Electronics, just to see what they had. It was even sadder than we expected. Empty shelves, dark portions of the store, no customers. Having remembered how jam-packed the stores once were, it was truly depressing. We knew then it was just a matter of time before Fry's closed all together. And indeed, it's now over. Such a shame, those Fry's stores — each one themed completely differently, like the alien space saucer crash theme in Burbank — made the experience extra fun. Still wondering what's going to happen to those old store fixtures, which were amusement park-level quality.

YouTuber Bitwit captured the sad end of Fry's life perfectly when he visited the Burbank store last year:

Retail Apocalypse 2020: Sears Succumbs in Glendale

Before there was Amazon, there was Sears. The retail giant first began as a mail-order catalog service in 1893, later branching out to brick-and-mortar stores as well. How big was Sears at its height? Its headquarters were literally the tallest in the world: The Sears Tower in Chicago. But the Sears Tower isn't the Sears Tower anymore (it's been the Willis Tower since 2009), and Sears isn't close to what Sears once was.

For a variety of reasons, Sears couldn't keep up with the times — and got rid of that mailorder business a few years before Amazon reinvented the concept. After years of declines, Sears was not immune to the retail apocalypse, and continues to shed stores. Next up: Glendale's Sears location, which opened in 1938 and is shutting down next month.

Sears wasn't a regular stop for us, but we did buy some appliances there when we bought our house, including our refrigerator and our oven. And when Blogger Teen was born, we took him several times to the Sears Portrait Studio (long since closed) to take his picture.

On Monday, Maria and I stopped by to see the inside of Sears one more time and also check out the clearance sales. I bought a suit jacket, a shirt and some ties, and got a pretty decent deal. But I also took a few shots of the store as it began to fade away. Here are some images:

Amoeba Records: Pre-Sad About Its Impending Move

Amoeba Music is moving, now that the City Council has approved a new 26-story tower on the site. But no one knows where Amoeba is moving to — and I can't imagine, wherever it ends up, that the new location will be nearly as large or exciting as its current digs.

Amoeba, of course, is the last of the great monster-sized music shops. There are still plenty of other record stores in Los Angeles, but none of them are very large. Stores like Rockaway Records have survived by downsizing their space. Large retailers like Tower Records and Virgin Megastore are long gone, and even decent-sized stores like Aron's Records have disappeared.

That's why we've got to savor the Amoeba Hollywood experience while we can. I spent several hours there on a recent Saturday night, and could have spent several hours more. 

Writes the L.A. Times: "The retailer’s Hollywood location, which opened to great fanfare in 2001, has been in a kind of holding pattern since news of the possible development came to light a few years ago. The store sold the building to developer GPI Cos. in 2015 for $34 million."

The Times also notes that Amoeba has repeatedly promised to reveal its plans, yet hasn't yet — which gives me cause for concern. Adds the paper:

“Amoeba has every intention of remaining in L.A.,” Amoeba’s Jim Henderson told The Times in 2017, citing the store’s statement on Facebook as the most complete update on its future at 6400 Sunset Blvd. “Rest assured, we are NOT closing, but we are now in a position where we may have to change locations in the coming years.”

On Tuesday morning, Henderson seemed unconcerned with the City Council’s vote. Amoeba’s move is a foregone conclusion, he said. The store has a lease that will carry it in its current location “for about another year,” he said, with a few brief extension opportunities.

“But I can also tell you that if we find something that’s a fit, then obviously we won’t be taking those extensions and GPI can get on with their business and we can get on with ours,” Henderson added.

The council’s vote was the final hurdle facing the development, which will replace the two-story Amoeba building with a mixed-use tower slated to contain up to 200 residential units. The ground floor will provide 7,000 square feet of commercial space, but there are no indications that Amoeba will remain at the address.

Save Amoeba!

What We Lost in 2017: Cellino & Barnes, Trader Joe's Corn Dogs, LAist And More

When Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at sunset last week, half of Los Angeles wondered whether a UFO had finally made contact. After the events of 2017, I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.

Turns out the creatures from outer space haven't arrived to save us from ourselves just yet. That leaves us to have to try and once again do better in 2018.

Looking back at this year, there was some reason to be hopeful — particularly as voices were heard and amplified as countless instances of serial sexual harassers and cases of assault were finally exposed.

But we also lost a lot in 2017, including superstars like Tom Petty, Mary Tyler Moore, Chris Cornell and even Judge Wapner.

Some of what we lost we won't miss (remember that tone-deaf Kylie Jenner Pepsi commercial?) and some of what we lost we really won't miss (ahem, "The O'Reilly Factor," ahem). But here are a few more things we said goodbye to in 2017:


10. Cellino and Barnes 
Yeah, Selena Gomez and The Weeknd was big, Fergie and Josh Duhamel was sad, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor was unexpected, and Chris Pratt and Anna Faris was heartbreaking. (Let's not discuss Kylie Jenner and Tyga or Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian.) But the most stunning breakup of the year had to be the ugly split between ambulance chasing attorneys Cellino and Barnes. You know their mad catchy jingle, the staple of daytime TV across the country. Ross Cellino and Stephen Barnes hate each other so much now, they're tossing grenades at each other while launching separate, rival firms. Who gets the jingle? Apparently Barnes spent nearly $1 million to recraft the song with his new phone number.



9. Wet Seal 
The "retail apocalypse" continues. As someone who spent a great deal of time at shopping malls as a teenager in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it's quite sad -- and yet fascinating -- to see the collapse of something that once defined the retail experience. (I still remember Wet Seal as the store with the big video screens blaring freestyle music videos by Seduction and Stevie B as teens shopped.) Also in 2017, The Limited closed its doors, American Apparel shut all of its retail locations, Radio Shack is mostly out of business, Teavana announced it was closing all of its stores, and even retail giants Sears, JCPenney and Macy's shut down hundreds of stores. Also in 2017, Toys 'R' Us, Gymboree and Payless ShoeSource were among the companies filing for bankruptcy — which means the retail apocalypse will likely consume many more major companies in 2018.

8. Cloo, Esquire, Chiller, Seeso
NBC Universal continued streamlining its entertainment offerings in 2017, eliminating some of its smaller cable networks, including crime drama channel Cloo, the young male-oriented Esquire, and horror channel Chiller. Cloo was the successor to Trio, a channel still fondly remembered for its scrappy pop culture programming (including franchises like “Brilliant But Canceled”), while Esquire replaced Style Network's channel slot (and G4's programming mandate) as an attempt to reach upscale male audiences, and Chiller began life in 2007 but was never a major cable player. Several channels have shut down over the past year as the cable industry prepares for an uncertain future in the wake of so-called “skinny bundles” (cable packages with fewer channels) and the growth of cord-cutting. But the rise of over-the-top platforms has already gone through a shakeup of its own, as witnessed by the decision to shut down comedy service Seeso so soon after launch. The comedy streaming platform pitched itself as a home for “Saturday Night Live” episodes as well as originals like “Take My Wife,” “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$” and “HarmonQuest,” but after it failed to find much traction, NBCUniversal pumped the brakes on original content.

7. 140 characters 
We didn't ask for 280 characters. We didn't need it. Twitter, fix youself.

6. San Diego Chargers
Speaking of what we didn't need, Los Angeles went 21 years without an NFL team, and suddenly it has two. The return of the Los Angeles Rams in 2016 made a lot of sense, as that team still had fans in Los Angeles and an emotional attachment to the market, having been here from 1946 to 1994. Still, the Rams had a bumpy first season back in L.A. (it's been a different story this year), making the arrival of the Chargers all the more perplexing. In a city with many more Oakland Raiders fans, and transplants rooting for their old hometown teams, the Chargers are now more like the fourth NFL team in Los Angeles.

5. Popular Photography, Surfing, Self, Teen Vogue, Nylon
Of course, even bigger than the retail apocalypse is the continuing slow death of the media. In 2018, we'll be discussing the disappearance of the Time Inc. and Tribune Media labels, as both disappear for good (unless Tronc comes to its senses and grabs back its rightful claim to the Tribune name). In 2017, we said farewell to several major titles — perhaps, most notably Teen Vogue, a more recent title that has made a name for itself in covering politics and social issues.


4. "The Carmichael Show"
Plenty of shows ended their runs in 2017, including faves "The Leftovers" and "Orphan Black." But at least those shows got to tell the endings they wanted to tell. There was no bigger TV tragedy than the end of NBC's "The Carmichael Show," a comedy that received plenty of critical acclaim but never turned into the hit it should have been. Despite being on the air for three seasons, "Carmichael" only produced 32 episodes. And the show never even aired in the fall, having been relegated to the summer in 2015 and 2017, and late spring in 2016. Could it have thrived with more care? Unfortunately, we'll never know, but at least Jerrod Carmichael had the chance to craft the right comedy at the right time, and provide a platform for performers who have already gone on to big things — including Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery.

3. Trader Joe's Veggie Corn Dogs
How dare you, Trader Joe's. I'm not vegetarian, but these were better than any regular corn dogs (including the disappointing Trader Joe's turkey corn dogs, which are rubbery in comparison). On the go, the TJ veggie corn dog was the perfect lunch meal. Then, like so many great TJ products, they just disappeared one day without any explanation. This one hurt.

2. Gothamist/DNAinfo/LAist
In a depressing, shrinking media world where local news has been hit hardest, sites like DNAinfo and the Gothamist chain (including LAist in Los Angeles) were more important than ever. As the alternative press shrinks, these sites picked up the slack and covered stories that other outlets were also struggling to handle, given smaller staffs and budgets at even major newspapers across the country. That all came crashing down when billionaire owner Joe Ricketts shut the sites down in November, without warning. Ricketts closed them down after the staffs of DNAinfo and Gothamist had unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East. A right-wing owner who had donated to anti-labor causes, the swiftness of Ricketts' decision to shut the sites was stunning, and left a tremendous void in local coverage.

1. Shame 
The Republicans pass a tax bill that funnels money into the pockets of millionaires and corporations, yet drags its feet to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program. Hundreds continue to die in Puerto Rico, where power won't be restored for several more months, and the administration says nothing about it. Donald Trump lies with impunity, and has golfed at least 80 times (at a cost to taxpayers at over $40 million) after having criticized President Obama for spending a fraction of that time on the course. Louis C.K. apologizes for sexual harassment but makes it all about himself. Many Republicans flocked to Roy Moore, despite the fact that he's a pedophile, choosing party over country. Moore lost, but still won't concede. Kellyanne Conway made up the fake "Bowling Green Massacre." Trump said there were "some very fine people" among the white supremacists causing violence (and an eventual death) in Charlottesville. There is no shame anymore, and hypocrisy now rules the land.

It's been a rough year, setting the stage for what should be a history-making 2018. "Looking back and looking ahead: 2017 was the Year of the Con," tweeted U.S. "House of Cards" creator Beau Willimon. "2018 will be the Year of the Turn." Happy New Year!

Found Coffee Gets Hit By Thieves, But Finds Solace in Community

Eagle Rock's Found Coffee reports that on Sunday, at around 4 a.m. burglars broke in and stole the coffee shop's registers, plus broke a glass door at Craft Beer Cellar.

But Found Coffee's management is undeterred. Their response to the act is inspiring:

I am so thankful for our regulars Rory, Jordan, and Elliot Scovel who called 911 and called me on my cell phone. Thank you to the countless people who posted on NextDoor & the Eagle Rock Facebook Neighborhood Group Page. Thank you to my team who helped clean up the mess and got us back up and running in no time. Thank you to Jay, especially, for sticking it out the entire day with me. A TREMENDOUS SHOUTOUT goes out to my neighbor at CBC, Corissa, who helped us board up our broken door right away. And of course, thank you to everyone who showed up in support yesterday.

If anything, this break-in demonstrated to me the loving, supporting, and truly caring community we've built in and around this little coffee shop in the short two years we've been here. These mean burglars won't steal our spirits!

You lose, burglars. We win.

From Found Coffee, pics of what happened:

R.I.P., Sport Chalet

Another one bites the dust. This one is extra sad for Southern California, as Sport Chalet is (was) a local success story, born in 1959 in La Canada Flintridge. The chain, which was sold in 2014 to Vestis Retail Group, announced today that it is shutting down:

Today Sport Chalet will begin the process of closing all of our stores and will stop selling merchandise online. Store closing sales will begin at the open of business today and continue over the next several weeks, offering customers the opportunity to take advantage of great sales. Our online store will stop selling merchandise on April 16th, but you may visit our website, www.SportChalet.com to find the location closest to you.

Sport Chalet gift cards, rewards certificates and store credits will be honored in Sport Chalet stores through April 29th, 2016. Customers who are unable to visit us before this date are invited to transfer gift card balances to a gift card from one of our sister stores, Eastern Mountain Sports or Bob's Stores through July 29th, 2016. To transfer your balance, please contact customer service at (888) 801-9162 and an agent will assist you.

We also ask that you pick up any equipment that had been left in one of our stores for repair no later than April 29th, 2016 and ask you to return Sport Chalet rental equipment before this date.

Thank you for your loyalty over the years. We hope to see you at our store closing sales.

Norbert Olberz, who founded Sport Chalet with his wife Irene, died in 2011. The shut down is a huge blow to the La Canada Flintridge business community. Sport Chalet had also just opened a major flagship story in downtown Los Angeles three years ago. Sport Chalet was 57.

Westfield Century City Turns Into a Ghost Mall for 2016

Westfield Century City's $800 million remake is underway -- but for now, that means it's looking like a ghost mall. Most retail and restaurants have now closed, with the exception of the food court and AMC movie theater, and some retail around it.

The LA Times summed up the new look last fall:

The overhaul comes after a major renovation just a decade ago, underscoring the challenge of keeping pace with the revolution in retail.

When the work is completed in 2017, Westfield will have spent about $1 billion on improvements since acquiring the mall in 2002, estimated Peter Lowy, co-chief executive of Westfield Corp.

The project will transform and expand the luxury property with new shops and a heavy emphasis on restaurants — largely in an outdoor setting intended to embody the Southern California lifestyle.

The transformation into a so-called lifestyle center — a concept popularized in Los Angeles at the Grove — will include the addition of a Nordstrom department store that is moving from rival Westside Pavilion, and the first California branch of Eataly, a fashionable gourmet Italian food emporium co-owned by celebrity chef Mario Batali.

The latest restaurant to depart: BJ's, which joins Pink Taco, Seasons 52 and The Counter in leaving. Macy's is now closed, as are most shops on the East end of the mall.

Fresh & Easy's Sad Farewell Letter

Sad sight tonight at the Glassell Park location of Fresh & Easy. With discounts between 10% and 30%, items are already flying off shelves. The employee I talked to said the store will probably be open for a week or two more, but the good stuff is going away now.

Back in 2007, we wrote about the arrival of Fresh & Easy markets. We were particularly excited about the opening of a nearby location in Glassell Park:

Wasn't too impressed with the food sample booth -- pieces of lettuce with blue cheese dressing (really? On day one, that's your only sample in the entire store? Shouldn't F&E be offering samples of just about everything?) Like TJ's, the produce selection is relatively small (actually, if possible, it's smaller than Trader Joe's). But in other ways -- the sheer variety of both F&E brand and national brand ice creams, for example -- F&E offers much more than TJs.

I was impressed, for the most part, by the prices. And let's face it, another grocery option so close by is a good thing -- and a welcome addition to the working-class Glassell Park neighborhood.

The store is big, but not too big, and simply designed. (The wall that separates F&E from whatever will move in next door is empty and stark.) Majority of the check outs are do-it-youself, although on opening day plenty of F&E employees were on hand to help ring people up.

Ultimately, I think the real draw for F&E will indeed be its ready-to-cook entrees. For dinner, I picked up a Green Curry Thai Chicken rice bowl for $3.99. Good price, good flavor (although I'm still tasting the garlic) -- and there's plenty more to try.

Fresh & Easy could never crack the code with consumers, who I think were confused by the fact that it was a hybrid of Trader Joe's and Ralphs. And maybe the self checkout thing really turned people off. It was impersonal and cold -- the direct opposite of TJ's friendly staff.

I liked having F&E as an option, however, and they still carried some decent ready-to-cook items. But alas, it's all over. A message from the company:

Over the last two years, we have been working hard to build a new Fresh & Easy. We thank you for shopping with us and bringing our products into your home.

As you may have heard, all our stores will be closing over the coming weeks. You may still convert any points you have over 500 and redeem your rewards. However, we will no longer be awarding Friends points on purchases made after 12:00:00am Pacific time on Friday October 23, 2015. Please see our updated Terms and Conditions.

We encourage you to come in and get some of your fresh&easy favorites for the last time.

Thank you for being a loyal friend.

The fresh&easy Team

See our full Fresh & Easy coverage from the past decade here.

Spotted: Last-Chance Video Cassette Sale

Saw this in the bargain bin of a Duane Reade store in New York. Never has the term "Last Chance sale" been more apt. This is truly your last chance at buying a blank video cassette, period.

A Visit to a Survivor: Claremont's Rhino Records Celebrates its 40th

Back in the 1990s I used to frequent the Rhino Records store in Westwood, particularly for its regular parking lot sales (in which CDs were just $1 each). The store was owned by Richard Foos, who also had founded the Rhino label -- although the two were completely separate. (Warner Music eventually bought Rhino, but Foos still owned the store.)

But that wasn't the only Rhino Records around. Foos had also owned a store in Claremont, but sold it off way back in 1976. That store kept the "Rhino" name though -- so when Foos decided to shut down the Westwood store in 2006, it didn't impact the Claremont store, which still exists.

We happened to be in the Pomona area a few weeks ago and decided to visit the Claremont Village area, where Rhino Records store is located. I couldn't resist. So I brought the kids and Maria -- who, as you know, worked for several years at the Rhino label as a designer -- and we finally checked it out. I wound up buying several 45s at $1 each.



Support your local independent music store this holiday season! They are a dying breed. Here's a bit more history about Rhino Claremont, which just hit its 40th anniversary. David Allen writes:

Mark Leviton, a friend of Rhino founder Richard Foos, opened the Claremont store in October 1974 under Foos’ ownership.

Foos sold the Claremont store in 1976 and it continues as an independent operation today, with no connection to the record label of the same name, which was also founded by Foos. It remains there today, thriving as the only full-service indie music store in the Inland Valley.

A Farewell to Brand Bookshop: Closing Sale (Half Off All Books) Starts Today

Sad, sad bookstore news out of Glendale: The Brand Bookshop, one of the last remaining independently owned book store gems left in L.A., is shutting down after 29 years in business. (It opened its doors in 1985. I called it "one of Glendale's treasures" in a 2007 blog post.) According to the LA Times:

Owner Jerome Joseph, now in his mid-80s, has decided to retire. A used bookstore with a vast, eclectic selection, Brand Bookshop was one of the largest bookstores of its kind in Southern California. In addition to the books in its sprawling Glendale store it has a large stock warehoused offsite, totaling more than 100,000 books. With its books sorted into more than 1,500 highly curated categories, Brand Bookshop has provided a terrific example of the power of browsing. Walking its aisles was an occasion for serendipity, contradiction and surprise.

Carolyn Kellogg in her piece above notes that Brand Bookshop was slow to start selling its books online. Too bad no one could step in and keep the store going. It narrowly avoided a fire next door just last year; instead, it was the march of time that ultimately claimed Brand Bookshop.

Starting today, all books are 50% off. Make sure to get there before it's too late!

A Visit to the Store That Has Nothing You Need, Yet Everything You Want

One of the joys of the 99 Cents Only store is buying things that you never knew you wanted -- or needed -- but what the hell, it's just a buck. Daiso Japan magnifies that joy: The store is filled with junk. Useful junk, like a silly frog mobile phone holder (see above). But what the hell, why not: Everything is $1.50. It's nothing you really need, yet you end up spending $25. The joy of discount stores! Some pics from our recent visit to the Daiso in Northridge (one of 15 locations in Southern California):