Category Archives: Stores and other places that sell you things

Amazon Books and the art at University Village, Seattle

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imageAmazon.com went online selling books in 2005, a brief 10 years ago. This past Tuesday, November 3, 2015, they opened their first bricks and mortar bookstore. It has several unique features.

  1. All of the books face cover out.
  2. Each book has a little card in front of it that says a little something about it’s Amazon reviews.
  3. The prices fluctuate as they do online. To find out the price, the customer uses the Amazon app to scan the book’s barcode.
  4. The store also sells other Amazon technology which customers can use.
  5. The record of the sale has appeared on my amazon account.
  6. And there was a line to get in!

There is currently only this one Amazon Books location in University Village in Seattle.

While I was there I strolled around the entire shopping area, which was very busy! Aooarently dogs of all size and shapes are allowed in all of the stores, but not restaurants or the grocery store. I snapped a couple of shots of the outside art.

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Fremont Sunday Market, Seattle, WA

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image1(4)Dear husband and I had a quick day trip up to Seattle and we stumbled upon the Fremont Sunday Market which operates every Sunday from 10 to 4 (5 in the summer). It had a great selection of crafts, vintage goods and clothes and some wonderful food trucks all at one end. It even had a dinosaur eating a meatball! I walked away with the scarf for myself and a holiday present for my friend Susan. Of course since I was there I snapped some other Fremont photos 🙂

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The plethora of pot stores on Pacific Avenue

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imagePer the News Tribune Tacoma has 60+ medical marijuana stores. It’s always seemed to me that Pacific Avenue has more than its share, so today I drove by and counted them. There are 13 retail locations between I-5 and Highway 512. In comparison, there are two dedicated liquor stores, though of course other places to buy liquor both for on site drinking and take out. One mentioned by the News Tribune is no longer there, but I found two new ones. In one case the owner was actually hanging up his open sign for the first time.

So, just for the record, no it isn’t my vice and I didn’t go inside. But I do think there is a place for medical marijuana. It just seems like like 13 is a great many. The article said that most will be asked to close their doors, so I thought if I was going to take their photos that now was the time. Maybe I’ll revisit next year and see what remains.

My favorites were Pacific Rush which has flames and the drive through (yes, drive through, my mind boggles). My favorite name was Ancient Medicine Collective.

Starting at the north end near I5:

  • 3421 Ashley’s Medicinal Garden
  • 3716 Ancient Medicine Collective
  • 3833 Natural Resources
  • 3837 Elements Sunshine
  • 4300 block Pacific Rush
  • 6532 Tacoma Cannabis Collective
  • 8223 The Green Warehoue
  • 8236 SMC (Seattle Medical Clinic)
  • 8808 TMC
  • 9027 Northwest Natural Medicine and Services
  • 9050 Drive Thru (that’s probably not it’s name)
  • 10018 Green Collar Club
  • 10625 Tacoma Healing Collective

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Who Remembers What Was Here?

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imageI remember shopping at this large department store and I think I remember having a meal in the cafe. But be darned if I can remember what it was called! It was one of the anchors of the Lakewood Mall when there was a Lakewood Mall. The retail space has been vacant for years.

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Dusty Country Store

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20137027672_e27b05bbec_kEach time I drive dear daughter to college I drive by the Dusty Country Store and wonder what it is like inside. I don’t think I had ever been in a Quonset Hut before and that alone was reason to stop. I purchased a nice cold bottle of water at a reasonable price and was on my way.

Dusty is a community in unincorporated Whitman County and Wikipedia tells me that it has a population of 11 or 12 and is the home of Wylie Gustafson, leader of the musical group Wylie & The Wild West.

I’m also including two other photos. The first is from a nearby rest stop where a man on a motorcycle was pulling a homemade dog RV. The dog seemed happy. And the second photo is of a barn that I’ve often admired, but never stopped to capture.

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The fence at Dahmen Barn in Uniontown, WA

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imageDear daughter was eager to show me the fence around the Dahmen Barn in Uniontown. The artisans barn was closed, but we did walk all around the barn admiring the fine and unique workmanship of the fence. We also admired the two freestanding cow sculptures. The barn was constructed in 1935 and began its conversion to its current use in 2004. The fence was constructed over a 30 year period and includes over 1,000 wheels. It was a lovely mini-adventure. More info can be found here.

We also stopped to see a two story barn on the way home.

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Update 4.2016 We went back to visit the inside of the barn. So much great art and such nice people. 💙

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Chamber’s Bay Whole Foods

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16793848633_738f3a9fab_kI was pretty excited when I learned that Whole Foods was opening up a location in University Place (Chambers Bay Whole Foods, 3515 Bridgeport Way West, University Place, WA 98466). We had a Whole Foods near us (kind of) when we lived in Dallas and I’ve always enjoyed shopping there. My day to day shopping is elsewhere, but Whole Foods was a pleasure for a once in a while treat.

I went to Chambers Bay Whole Food’s grand opening with live music and free samples. It was a lively event! But yesterday I went back to see how they are doing now that the opening is over and the US Open has left town.

The good points are.

  • Their employees are helpful, cheerful and knowledgeable.
  • Free samples! Lots of delicious fresh fruit and even a little wine.
  • There is plenty of parking and an entire underground parking lot also.
  • Plenty of ‘to go’ meal options including pizza by the slice, salad bar, hot food bar, juice bar, coffee bar with adjacent bakery, a bar bar (yes, you can have beer or wine with your pizza there in the store!) and other made to order goods.
  • They have a lovely Facebook Page.
  • Their website is also well done.
  • They have a good selection of local produce and other goods. For example there is an upcoming brewer’s night with local beer brewers.
  • All kinds of products that I don’t see elsewhere.
  • I love the octopus on the narrows bridge art over the cheese shop!

The less than good points are:

  • Well, they are expensive. For example the leg cramp medicine my husband uses was 1/3 more expensive than it is on Amazon. Though I found quite a few reasonably priced items and some of the sale items (I love their soaps) were a steal!
  • This location doesn’t carry Tom’s Shoes, which is what brought me there. In fact they have very little in the way of clothes. That’s OK, if I want clothes with my groceries I go to Fred Meyers. Though I really wanted to check the fit on the new Tom’s sneakers.
  • Like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods doesn’t stock most day to day items, so if I want Pepsi or Oreo Cookies, I need to go elsewhere. They do have healthy options to sodas and sweets.
  • I was looking forward to taking a class or two there and they don’t seem to be set up for that. Maybe in the future.

The good outweighs the not so good and I’m delighted that they are here.

 

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Hong Kong Supermarket

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imageThe Hong Kong Supermarket at 3828 S Yakima Ave, Tacoma, WA 98418 opened in April 2014, so it has had more than a year to settle into place. It is a large specialty store with a full selection of food items from primarily Southeast Asia. There is a deli and some household items as well. It is good to see a new building/expanded business in the Lincoln District which has quite a few empty storefronts and under utilized buildings. The Hong Kong Supermarket had been located on the corner of South 38th and South Yakima Ave before they constructed their new store in the previous location of Lincoln Bowl.  I purchased a treat for dear daughter, but if I had been more adventurous I would have gone for one of the drinks: Pennywort, Chrysanthemum or Basil Seed. Yep, that’s what I’ll do next time!

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Star Wars Family

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imageWhile walking through the Tacoma Place Shopping Center Parking Lot at 1901 South 72nd, I discovered this stupendous Star Wars family car decal. It features a Boba Fett dad, a Princess Leia mom and daughter, an Ewok son and a R2D2 dog. That’s my best guess.

Daiso, Bellevue

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16230445183_202898c7be_kI’ve been going to Crossroads Mall in Bellevue for years, decades even, but I hadn’t realized that they have a Daiso Store. My only defense is that it has an exterior entrance. It is like a dollar store with everything being the same price (a little more than a dollar). I sent about $20 and walked away with a bunch of fairly useful stuff. There is a nice mural on the exterior wall.

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