Calm Before The Storm: The Grocery Store Crowd

Dropped by Ralphs tonight to pick up some provisions as we head toward lock down. But below, one thing we *didn't* get: "Poke at Home." Nope. I don't care if the other shelves are empty.

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):

Koreatown's California Market Set to Close; Discounts Remaining Inventory

(Flickr pic by LA Wad

Bargain hunters: Friend of Franklin Avenue Hunter Walker reports that the California Market on Western in Koreatown is selling off its inventory in advance of shutting down. (The branch will be temporarily closed as it waits to reopen inside a sleek new mall.)

"Sad to find out the supermarket behind my house is closing, but I just got one hell of a deal on a big bottle of patron silver," Hunter wrote via Twitter. I asked him for more details; apparently all liquor at the location is now 30% off.

"Lots of patron, great scotches, and woodford reserve still left. Also 2 bottles of dom discounted from 199," he wrote.

The California Market is located at 450 S. Western Avenue.

Spotted at the 99 Cents Store

Random products spotted during our Saturday visit to the 99 Cents Only store in Highland Park:


99 Cents Only store wine. It's probably horrible -- but 99 cents store wine! We'll report back after trying. (Yes, I bought a bottle. Can't pass up 99 cents wine!)


Don't let the name fool you. These cookies are assholes.


"Anytime is the right time" for generic beer! I love that the generic beer makers didn't even bother to come up with a name. "Hey, you want a beer?" "Sure, what you got?" "Um, 'Beer.'"


"So tell me what you want, what you really really want!" Probably not this horrific likeness of "Sporty Spice." This Spice Girls action figure was probably always ugly, but it sure hasn't gotten better with age, ten years later.


Yep, if I were bald, I too would want to experience the embarrassment of buying a product called "Bald Guyz." While I'm at it, I'll pick up a box of "Fat Azz" and "Stank Breathz."

Retro Friday: L.A. Shopping Mall Edition

The Glendale Galleria plays a supporting role in 1984's "Cloak and Dagger"



The "Downtown of the Future" -- the Bonaventure Hotel's shopping center, circa 1977 -- "an experience you'll never forget."


A time-lapse video of the complete reconstruction of the famed Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Silver Lake Trader Joe's Brings Back Its Local Color

Good news for Trader Joe's Silver Lake shoppers like Jessica Ritz, who bemoaned the loss of some local flavor after the store expanded: Some of it is coming back.

That includes the Silver Lake TJ's use of local street names to designate its checkout registers. As part of the store's recent expansion into the old Video Hut space, the checkouts were suddenly given numbers in place of streets like Hyperion, Rowena and (of course), Franklin.

Jessica wrote at the time:

There might be 14 check-out aisles, plenty of wandering room, and expanded shelf space. But gone are the murals showing local landmarks: Dodger Stadium, Travel Town, the Observatory. In its place are other trying to be "funky" eclectic images that don't have the neighborhood feel of the former decor. For all its shortcomings, I've always preferred this pre-mega-chain, old school-feeling TJs, for better or for worse.

The Eastsider L.A. wrote about it as well.

Some of the murals are still there -- such as Travel Town, which is painted on an office door. But new drawings of L.A. sights like the zoo and downtown skyline now exist above the cashiers.

Steve & Barry's: What Went Wrong

I've been fascinated by the rapid rise and even faster decline of Steve & Barry's, the discount clothing chain that recently declared bankruptcy for the second time in three months -- and is now shutting down for good.

The chain is liquidating its merchandise, although I didn't find any real bargains during a recent trip to the Burbank location. That's because the liquidators -- sneaky as they are -- have decided to knock 30% off a higher price point than the $8.98 that all Steve & Barry's merchandise had been selling for.

Yep -- $8.98. That may explain why Steve & Barry's collapsed so quickly. The profit margins are either razor-thin, or not there at all, with those kind of prices. It's rumored that Steve & Barry's basically survived off of the shopping malls that provided incentives to the stores in bringing them in.

The chain also expanded too soon and too fast. We wrote about Steve & Barry's arrival to Burbank last year.. but even then it seemed strange that the store could survive on so little.

Now here's your answer: It couldn't. That's a shame -- in these tough economic times, a bargain clothier like Steve & Barry's should thrive. Instead, the store will soon cease to exist.

Here's more from Business Week:

Yet Steve & Barry’s is a retail casualty. Design couldn’t save the day for this chain. Aggressive growth, instead, seemed to be the company’s goal—and perhaps its downfall. It’s bankrupt. While growth is what every business strives for, obviously, when is enough enough? Could Steve & Barry’s still be doing well, if it didn’t push for opening nearly 300 stores — almost ten times the number of stores it had five years ago — in such a relatively short time? If the company had focused more on design and quality at super-low prices, which seemed to be a priority, instead of the number of stores, perhaps it could have found itself in a different position today. One that would offer cash-strapped consumers fun, well-designed clothing at prices they could afford during the toughest of times, and would allow them to profit from the mass desire for cool apparel at bare-bones prices. Now those customers will be shopping at their competitors’ stores instead.

Steve & Barry's stores were also located at the Beverly Connection and in Santa Monica, among other spots.

One Month to Americana

It's still the worst-named shopping center out there (well, other than Westfield's insistence in calling all of its malls "Westfield"): The Americana at Brand.

But what the hell... we're hoping the arrival not only injects a little more excitement and status to Glendale, but perhaps juices property values as well.

The L.A. Times checks in on how things are going. For starters, Glendale residents are concerned about the coming traffic -- but that's balanced by their interest in seeing this thing finally open:

Some critics are quick to point out that traffic from the Galleria and other shops can already bring Brand Boulevard to a crawl. But backers argue that the residential portion of Americana might prompt those residents to walk to shops in the area rather than drive.

Glendale is looking longingly to the Grove, an earlier Caruso development near 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue in L.A. that is one of the more admired outdoor shopping plazas in the region.

Caruso, in an interview Monday, said the Americana could have an even bigger effect on Glendale, because the 15.5-acre project is much larger and includes housing.

"As great as the Grove is," he said, "this is a pretty remarkable project."

Where the Grove is meant to evoke 1940s Charleston, S.C., the Americana is meant to remind consumers of an even earlier time: "A massive elevator shaft, with exposed steel beams, is supposed to hearken back to the industrial era, said Executive Vice President Dave Williams of Caruso Affiliated. A trolley that loops around the project and onto Brand is from 'a little bit earlier era' than the Grove's trolley, which travels back and forth along a linear track."

Caruso also added a few touches that came out of his experience with the Grove: The central courtyard, for example, is much larger. And stores have more of a unique identity, as opposed to looking too mall-like.

Glendale officials are optimistic that Americana shoppers will spill out onto Brand, and help revitalize that street as well. I'm not as optimistic; people have a way of not exploring environs outside of their intended destination. We'll see. The Americana at Brand opens at the end of April.