I made a quick stop today at Lowes at 7905 South Hosmer Street, Tacoma to pick up some flowers to put in pots on the front porch.
They were pretty busy for the middle of a weekday and that made me wonder if the home improvement stores are doing well. Apparently, based on this article in the LA Times, yes they are.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-improvement-20110413,0,7527522.story
I’ve been wanting to see the newest Tacoma Boys, the one in the South Hill portion of Puyallup. It is much like its sister stores, the one on 6th Avenue in Tacoma and the other on Lakewood Drive in Lakewood. As always, they have excellent produce, a lovely assortment of specialty items and friendly staff.
I’ve been honoring the strike at Macy’s at the Tacoma Mall, though they probably haven’t noticed because I go there so infrequently anyway! But I needed a nice dress for an upcoming event and I don’t have time to order something online. So, feeling particularly mean I dragged my poor husband to Macy’s. It ended up that I didn’t find a dress that I liked in my price range, but I did buy a nice pair of jeans for $24, which seemed reasonable to me. The sales associates were pleasant, but the racks of clothes were a mess with sizes all mixed in together.
The UFCW Local 367 members voted to strike Tacoma Macy’s in May 2010 and I’m not readily finding information to see if the strike is settled. I haven’t seen one of the trucks that had been driving around promoting the strike for a while.
I really debated using Borders Books in Tacoma as one of my new places of the day. But today I stopped in to say goodbye. This is the closest bookstore to my house and my family has spent hours here. Its practically a family tradition to go on a rainy Sunday for a cup of coffee and to read the magazines in the cafe. And of course, we’d always end up with a book or two. I’m pretty sure my daughter has never walked out of the store without a book!
But our Borders, which is almost always busy, is closing no later than the end of May. The cafe is closed, items are heavily discounted and some of the shelves are pretty empty. The GIg Harbor and Federal Way Borders are also closing with only Puyallup Borders to remain open in Pierce Co. Across the country Borders is closing 200 of its 643 locations as part of a bankruptcy reorganization.
So, goodbye Tacoma Borders. We’ll miss you.
I made a quick stop at Dave’s Meats & Produce just as they were closing up today and was impressed with what I saw. Fresh produce, wonderful looking meat and lovely flowers. I’ll be back!
1312 North I Street
Tacoma, WA 98403
(253) 280-9999
Today I found myself back at the University of Washington Tacoma Branch and decided to celebrate finding an easy parking space with a treat. I had the chocolate dipped caramel and dear daughter went for the Monster Cookie (an Oreo dipped in caramel and then fudge). They owner was delightful and the candy selection was great. They also had ice cream and drinks. As befitting a store with the word popcorn in its name, they have an extensive variety of popcorn flavors including Bacon & Cheese, Cheddar, Caramel, Blue Raspberry, Butter Toffee, Butter Rum, Barbecue, Butterscotch, Cherry Vanilla, Chile Lime, Chipotle, English Toffee, Garlic & Parmesan, Green Apple, Honey Mustard, Hot ‘N Spicy, Hot-Cha-Cha, Huckleberry, Jalapeno Heat, Kettle Corn, Molasses, Peanut Butter, Peppermint, Pizza
Ragin Cajun, Ranch, Red Cinnamon, Red, White & Blue, Salt & Vinegar, Seattle Mix, Snickerdoodle, Sour Cream & Chives, South of the Border, Stuffed Potato, Tacoma Mix, Toasted Coconut, Tutti Frutti, White Cheddar, Root Beer Float, Dill Pickle, The Elvis Popcorn, 3 Star Thai, Berries & Cream, Caramel Apple, Chocolate Cocoa, Chocolate Caramel, Cookies & Cream, Cranberry Craving, Habanero Jelly, Peanut Butter Cup, S’Mores, Tiger Butter, Chocolate Coconut, Banana Nut, Caramel Almond, Coconut Cashew and Deluxe Caramel. That information is from there website.
Great Northwest Popcorn is located at 1948 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, WA, 98402-3110
www.greatnorthwestpopcorn.com/
Today I needed to stop at FedEx to mail a package and I wandered two doors down to the Dollar Tree. There is so much stuff there and only a dollar! I ended up with a package of 2 toothbrushes, gum, reading glasses, a small milk (which is what I went in for!), frozen broccoli, frozen mixed berries and gummy bears for dear daughter.
http://www.dollartree.com/home.jsp
On the way there I took this photo of a school bus.
The Center for Disease Control says “Almost Everyone Needs to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables”. By going to Tacoma Boys and buying fresh produce, often in season and local grown I am making the CDC happy and supporting my community. It makes me smile!
http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/benefits/index.html
With word that Borders Books is restructuring and one of my favorite smaller Seattle bookstores is closing, I wasn’t sure what to expect during my visit to Powell’s City of Books in Portland. I was pleased to see that it was very, very busy! Everywhere I looked there were folks perusing books.
Powell’s main store is located at 1005 W Burnside, Portland OR and is one of the world’s largest bookstores. The building contains 73,000 square feet of retail space and more than 3,000 people visit day. Their stores feature more than 1.5 million books, of which 65% are used (they buy 5,000 used books each day).
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
The Art Gallery at Freighthouse Square has some lovely Northwest art. We have purchased several pieces here and appreciate that we can have some original art at a doable price. It is located on the upper level of Freighthouse Square beyond the food court. It is run as an artist cooperative and usually at least one of the artists is on site.
602 East 25th Street, Suite 60
253-383-9765
http://www.freighthousesquare.com/
http://www.freighthousesquare.com/Merchants/Freighthouse_Art_Gallery.html
