Don't make me boycott CVS

Question:  Have you shopped at CVS? What is up with the receipts?

This past weekend I went to CVS. I bought one item. I needed a battery for my car key fob. The receipt I received was more than half the length of my body.

I am not alone. In doing a little research, I found a Jimmy Kimmel  Live commentary on the length of the receipts at CVS.

My question now is:  Have any of you ever used one of the coupons you received on the CVS receipt?

Inconsideration

I usually enjoy photographing the good in Downey, but today as I was in the Ralph's grocery store parking lot looking for a place to park, I saw that almost every space near the doors was occupied. Except for this one.

Someone decided that the 30 seconds it would take them to take this cart to the cart bin was too much for them. Either they didn't have the energy or they couldn't afford to get to the next place 30 seconds later.

And it wasn't just me. While I was taking this picture, three other cars drove by and couldn't park here but had to park further out. Oh well, I did find a spot to park and I got my groceries. All is fine now.

On the one hand...

Continuing with our focus on hands, tonight I ended up on Firestone Blvd. in front of the Exotical Hawaiian Apparel store that has been there for as long as I can remember.

It is a great store jam-packed with anything Hawaiian you could want, but you gotta admit, these mannequin hands are just a little creepy...

Water for sale

This is a store that sells, among other things, reverse osmosis filtered water. Customers bring in bottles of all sizes to get filled at $0.25/gallon. While I was there, a lady came with seven 1-gallon plastic bottles and one 5-gallon bottle. There are multiple stores like this in Downey.



There's even a neon sign to advertise how pure the water is.

New kid on the block

Almost every weekday I ride my bike through the large parking lot just north of the Kaiser Hospital. Early in January, I saw workmen adding a new store name to the billboard out front on Lakewood Blvd. The name of the new company is Five Below. The "o" is shaped like the degree sign. I've never heard of them, so I started imagining what they could be selling. Was it outdoor clothing for the snow or ice cream?

Well, today on the way home from work I decided I would find the store and see what they are all about. I found the above building being constructed, so not occupied yet. But I did follow their instructions and looked them up on the web. You can find them here. They sell items that are $5 or less.

New tenant

This Grocery Outlet, near the corner of Firestone and Downey Avenue, is the new tenant in a building that used to house the Albertson's grocery store. They moved west into a larger building and made room for this tenant. Tomorrow, I'll show you some of their yellow fruits and vegetables.

Take me home?

Whenever I shop at Petsmart, I wander by the cat adoption center (just in case, you know...I've adopted two cats from Petsmart over the years).

The adoption center is part of Petsmart Charities, which helps local animal welfare groups find homes for homeless cats and dogs. As the sign below shows, they've found homes for over seven million cats. The Downey store works with Zazzy Cats, a local organization whose goal is to rescue high risk cats from shelters in the Los Angeles area. (For example, one of the cats there tonight is missing one eye.)

So come on by, and see if one of them catches your eye, and your heart.

We all scream for...

What's the best way to celebrate a warm summer evening? (The temperature is still in the 80s.) Your favorite flavor of ice cream at 31 Flavors, of course!

What do they have in common?

Uptown Vogue is a relatively new shoe store in downtown Downey. Passing by the other day, I noticed the logo. I immediately thought of Paris (the Eiffel Tower), London (Big Ben), New York (the Statue of Liberty), and ... the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

I think of Paris, London, and New York as fashion centers. And Italy is known for its leather goods. But Pisa? It's known for its tilting tower, not its shoes. This thought made me wonder where the idea for the logo came from. A little Googling, and I came across Uptown Vogue opens in Downtown Downey from downeybeat.com. According to Marco Sosa, the store manager, “We wanted to put the whole world into one shopping experience. Because we carry items from many countries, we thought it would be fun to showcase major tourist attractions. It was actually my father’s idea.”

Not fashion centers—tourist attractions. Now I get it!

Window dressing

I often snap a picture of the latest window display at the Second Tyme Around thrift shop in downtown Downey. But this is the first time I've seen the work in progress. The Hawaiian-themed display must have caught someone's eye, because a dress was being purchased, and some redressing was definitely necessary.

Wyman's

It's funny how you can live in a city and drive past some place for years without every stopping by. I have seen this liquor store for years.

A few weeks ago, I noticed this sign advertising Craft Beer. I'm not a big beer fan, but craft beers can be fun. So, tonight I stopped by to check it out. There was a pretty varied selection. I even ended up buying a vanilla porter.



According to one internet search, it says Wyman's was founded in 1977. It seems older. This picture was available online.

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer". 
- Frank Zappa

Dressed for love

Looking back, I notice that I frequently post about the Second Tyme Around Shoppe. Just last month, I wrote about their winter-themed window displays. This month, the display, with hearts and pink and red clothes, is perfect for Valentine's Day. And this time, I finally realized what keeps me coming back.

It's not just that the displays are colorful and appealing. Rather, it's that somebody here (or most likely several somebodies) cares enough to take the time and thought to make the displays attractive. Somebody cares enough to want this thrift store to be a success.

And that's important, because proceeds from the store benefit the Assistance League of Downey and their numerous philanthropic projects. Among their programs is Operation School Bell, which provides new clothing to school children, and HOME (Housing of Medical Emergencies), a 10-unit apartment complex that serves relatives of patients at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.

So stop by sometime, and see for yourself.

What's your season?

What season is your coloring? If you're a "winter," your coloring is overall very vivid, so you shine in black and other colors that have a strong jewel quality to them.

So it's only fitting, in this winter season, that the Second Tyme Around Shoppe has outfitted its window displays with black, white, and red clothes and angry birds.

How old is that product?

I had to go to the hardware store today to get some wood glue. I decided while I was there to look at some other products down some other aisles. Down one aisle, I spotted this product. The first thought that came into my mind was, "This product hasn't been touched in quite some time. Not even by the staff. Maybe I should check the freshness date on the label."

"The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.”
Pablo Picasso

My wish list

I love shopping at Fry's Electronics. And the huge gears above the entrance of the store in City of Industry always remind me of the front of the It's a Small World ride at Disneyland.

I've heard a lot of suggestions for the stores that will populate the new Downey Promenade—Trader Joe's, our own Costco, or Barnes & Noble. But one of my top choices would be Fry's.

What do you want to see at the Downey Promenade?

Autumn and the retail calendar

Our current 90 degree days might give the impression that summer will never end.

But with pumpkins, balloons, and all sorts of autumn decor for sale, the retail calendar says that the fall holidays (Día de Muertos, Halloween, and Thanksgiving) are already upon us.

After hours

Downey Landing was hopping when I arrived a little before 9 p.m. on a Monday night.

But now it's 10 p.m. The storefronts are still lit, but the stores are closed, and the parking lot is nearly empty.

What a difference an hour can make.

Keeping your head

Seeing the mannequin inside looking out on the headless mannequins in this downtown Downey window, I thought of the saying, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, maybe you just don't understand the situation."

But I never knew that this was a parody of the poem "If," by Rudyard Kipling, that starts out with these lines:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you...

and ends with these:
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

The cost of convenience

One of the businesses that does stay open late in Downey is the convenience store at the local gas station. This store, as is typical of convenience stores, offers a little bit of everything, with the benefit of being open late to suit my whims, with no waiting in line. All it costs me is a little higher price for my late night ice cream snack.

Mary's birthday

When Charles See arrived in Los Angeles in 1921 and opened his first candy store, he chose a picture of his mother Mary to represent the quality and personality of his products. According to the company website, "Mary See died in 1939 at the age of 85, but the company's ability to adjust to changing times - without abandoning the passion for quality and service that Mary See represented - kept it going strong throughout the decades to come."

Now, nearly 100 years later, the See's Candies store in the Stonewood Mall has celebrated Mary See's birthday this past weekend with discounts on their fine chocolates. Yum!