Tag Archives: shopping

Snow Flake Lane, Bellevue Square

snowflake-lane

 

So I say to my dear husband, “let’s go up to Bell Square on what is probably the most hectic shopping weekend of the year” and oddly he agreed. Neither of us are big mall people, but he likes to see the upper end merchandise so he can later look for it at estate sales and I wanted to see Snow Flake Lane. At 7 each evening there is a show with singing and dancing. The night we were there, there was a Seahawk, #72, Michael Bennet. The Snow Queen was blowing bubbles with her wand, so I figured that was the promised snow. But then snow flakes appeared in blue and green on the walls of the shopping centers, so I figured that was the snow. But then it really did snow! Well, maybe they were fine bubbles, but it looked like snow and it was cold enough for snow, so snow it was. The children were delighted! The streets were so very crowded, but everyone was in high spirits. We spent sometime afterwards in the mall to give the parking lot a chance to clear out. Really it was a lovely evening.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Sears at the Tacoma Mall

SearsSears is located at the Tacoma Mall at 4502 S Steele St #100, Tacoma. Information about Sears is here. Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room says that the mall’s original four anchors were J.C. Penney, the Bon Marche, Nordstrom and Rhodes Department Store. I was a little surprised that Sears wasn’t on the list. The Bon was Tacoma Mall’s first tenant.

Tacoma Public Library has a wonderful photo of Tacoma’s original Sears at the corner of South 13th Street and Broadway circa 1950. It can be seen here.

Basic Goods

Basic Goods is a around the corner at 1734 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma’s Museum District. I discovered it because I was out for the first time in a couple of days (darn cold) and went to pick up dear daughter. She begged for a Starbucks drink and I ran down the street in search of a new place.

Basic Goods’ space is about the size of a small garage. On their website they say that they “focus on curating a small collection of well designed, long lasting and useful merchandise”. Really, I liked everything they had from little notebooks to stamp sets to scarfs to thermoses. I picked up a sweet stocking stuffer for dear daughter. Much of their stock can be seen and ordered on their website http://www.basicgoodsco.com/

Use to be Johnny’s Seafood

We were celebrating a birthday today and my job was to stop and buy some fish for the grill. So, I went to Johnny’s Seafood at 7304 Lakewood Drive in Lakewood. I was out of my car before I realized that it was gone! Of course the building is still there, but it was empty. There goes all my thoughts of sneaking in some fun fish and crab photos! Fine. Here is a shot of the empty building.

Coldwater Creek in Gig Harbor

So I printed out a map of a potentially lovely park in Gig Harbor and I grabbed my camera and daughter who wanted a ride and off I went. As we are crossing the Narrows Bridge I tell her that I’m going hiking and within seconds it started to hail! Well, OK then, maybe not a hike. I drop her off at the movie theater and remember that there is a Coldwater Creek in the Uptown Gig Harbor Center (4621 Point Fosdick Dr. NW,Gig Harbor, WA 98335). Great. I’ve had my eye on a scarf/vesty thing that is a requirement for the women in my generation and was waiting for a big online sale to buy it. This was my chance to look at it in person. Imagine my delight when they had it  marked down from $49.95 to $29.99, and then it was 60% off! And it was a great fit. Oh happy days 🙂 I bought two (different colors). Part of one is pictured here (the pink border is part of the processing) and there is a bonus Buddha, which was at the center and I thought was cool.

 

 

Macy’s at the Tacoma Mall, are they on strike?

 



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.