Da na! Da na! It's random fact time!
Did you know that if each of us spent 100 dollars a year on local businesses, instead of chain stores, it would put an extra 3 million dollars a year into our economy, as well as create thousands of more jobs each year? What is the moral of the story, folks? Thats right, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MOM AND POP SHOPS! It will not only help them, but also help you!
To help support this cause, I have decided to use our Friday's Favorites post to help highlight my personal favorite Mom and Pop Shops as well as a few of my favorite smaller local chain stores. Each of them are truly precious treasures that I can't wait to introduce you too! They each have a fun, quirky character of their own. I hope you check them out and enjoy them, maybe even as much as I do!
1.) Cottage Crafts Boutique is a small, warm and cozy shop residing in the Cambrian Park Plaza on Camden and Union in San Jose. They have provided twenty years of service selling quality handcrafts to the masses. They feature and sell the work of many different local artisans and crafters. Their merchandise changes frequently, often with the seasons, and they are always acquiring new unique items to put on the sales floor. The sales staff is always helpful, friendly and smiling. They almost always ask how your day is or strike up a conversation with you, while you are meandering through the store looking at the shelves of handcrafts. The staff is knowledgeable, and is always willing to try their best to answer any question you may have about the crafts or their creators. This is definitely a local community based company that cares about is customers and its long lasting promise of quality customer service. Many events are held at the store, such as Tea tastings, art shows or art festivals. I have loved walking in the door to this shop for many years, and have countless fond memories of wandering through the store as a little girl, falling in love with what I saw and asking to buy everything I set my eyes on. This store never fails to put a smile on my face and hole in my pocket!
2.) SpaceCat is a relatively small hobby, toy, gaming and comic book shop that caters to your every nerdy need! It sits on Bascom Avenue, in San Jose and is packed from floor to ceiling with comics, video games, action figures and many other products along these lines. It is heaven for a proud geek like me! I have them to have certain comic books or action figures that I was unable to find elsewhere. They have a wide selection of quality items to scour through and the cashiers are knowledgable about their products, stock and the fandoms as a whole. They are willing to help you out with any question you may have or are happy to give recommendations if you request them. Spacecat is also the perfect place to find many retro products such as cassettes, old books or old fashioned toys.
3.) Moon Zoom a vintage and retro clothing shop on West San Carlos Street in San Jose. They sell clothing from literally every single time period, and at a rather afforable price (for the most part). Walking past the racks of clothing is a blast from the past. There has yet to be a time that I walk into Moon Zoom and don't come out with at least one new article of clothing (if not more.) They sell everything from bell bottoms, to 40s dresses, to vintage bathing suits, to authentic zoot suits! The shop itself is two levels and has a fun unique character with is graffiti wall covered in writing and stickers to its merchandise. I would definetly recommend Moon Zoom as the place to buy one of a kind pieces of clothing that you can't find anywhere else.
To give you an idea of their merchandise and their merchandise quality, as well as the authenticity of their clothing, this is a photograph of my mom and I wearing two Moon Zoom purchases at a 1930s themed wedding shower we attended a few months ago
4.) Books Inc, although not a Mom and Pop shop, this is a smaller local bookstore chain. Although they are, admittedly, a bookstore, they also carry many other products. Along with their many shelves of great books, they sell toys, stationary, small gift items and lots and lots of greeting cards! Every Tuesday in July, the Mountain View location is having a buy 4 get one free card sale! They have a variety of spectacular, heartwarming, witty and crude cards for just about any occasion. Books Inc also holds many story times for young children as well as a rare Junior Bookseller opportunity for children ages 8-18. The junior booksellers help keep the store in order as well as help set up certain areas of the bookstore such as book tables and displays. Whats the best part of the Junior Booksellers program? They get paid for their hard work in free books! Sounds like a great deal for your favorite little bookworm to me!
5.) Falafel Drive-In is a small drive through restaurant in San Jose. Although it is named after their falafels, they are best known for their refreshing banana milkshakes. I have been coming here specially for their shakes ever since I was a little girl and am still just as in love with them now, as I was back then. They are definitely a childhood favorite! I have yet to find another shake that even comes close to comparing. Other menu items that I would recommend are their falafel salads, onion rings and corn dogs. If you have a desire to try one of their amazing meals, they can be found on Steven Creeks Blvd in the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden area. The only thing to keep in mind is they close early in the evening on most days so make sure to arrive earlier rather than later! I promise you won't regret it!
6.) Crossroads Trading Company, another small chain store, is a trendy thrift shop that keeps up with the latest, fashion, trends and fashion forward clothing statements! The only draw back is that it doesn't generally have the thrift store prices, the prices tend match the retail price. Despite this, you can still find bargains, at crossroads, if you look hard enough. A major pro of crossroads is that, unlike most thrift shops. you don't have to shuffle through mounds of clothing to find a treasure-the majority of their merchandise is fantastic and perfect for any teen, young adult, or adult's closet! Their clothing is quality and it lasts! They are very picky about the thrifted items that they ultimately allow on their sales floor and they turn down about 40 percent of what people try to sell to them. I bought my all time favorite leather jacket from crossroads three years ago and despite its constant use and ware, it still looks almost brand new. I own 4 leather jackets, but I have yet to find another one that I love quite as much as my Crossroads purchase. There are multiple Crossroads locations, but my personal favorite is on West San Carlos Street in San Jose.
I even sported the amazing leather jacket I bought from Crossroads in my Senior photographs last year
7.) Park Place Vintage is similar to Moon Zoom in its market, although, due to its wider range of products, (extending to not only clothing but furniture and packaged costumes as well), Park Places vintage clothing selection is much smaller than Moon Zooms. Their clothing products range from the 20s to the 70s although it is mostly concentrated in the era of the poodle skirt, saddle shoes and mod girl style. Some of the clothing is outsourced, although a large amount of it is also hand sewn by the shops owner herself, to resemble authentic period pieces. I have bought myself a poodle skirt, hand sewn paisley romper and black and white sailor style dress, all from Park Place and I still wear each of them quite a lot. They are well made and unique. Much of what she sells in her shop, has one item of each product available, with the exception of items such as poodle skirts or the items she has sewn herself. The customer service is spectacular here and the owner is one of the sweetest down to earth ladies I have ever met! I am always happy to support this lovely little shop!
8.) The Kidz Shoppe which stands directly next to Cottage Crafts Boutique in the Cambrian Park Plaza is an adorable children's consignment shop. It sells gently used clothing, toys, books, and baby items, as well as a few new items such as unopened craft projects or beautiful children's hair adornments. When you walk in, its hard to tell that most of the items are used consignment items as they are all in such good condition and are top quality. The prices are amazing and the staff is friendly and helpful. I bought many of my own personal childhood items here.
9.) Hijinx Comics is a comic book store (Shocker right?) that has a insanely large collection of every comic book you can imagine. Hardback, paper back book style, traditional and much much more. Unlike, Spacecat, mentioned earlier, Hijinx focuses solely on comics and comic merchandise. This is the shop from which I have bought all of the current Wonder Woman comics I own, if you want to own some comics of your own head on down to Lincoln Ave. in Willow Glen and check them out!. The owner is always getting new stuff in and always obtaining new comics! For all you superheroes out there, this is an amazing store to know about, after all its the oldest comic book store in San Jose!
10.) Natasha's Attic is my all time favorite costume shop! They have a wide variety of costumes, makeup, wigs and hats, to choose from all year round, not just during the traditional Halloween time. They have quality costumes for sale but they also rent authentic costumes for certain well known characters from the back of the shop. I have bought a ton of foam wig heads, different styled wigs, beautiful costumes and loads of make up from this shop. They have never disappointed me! I know, I have said a large number of the stores mentioned in todays post have had great customer service, but truly none of them can top Natasha's Attic service. I mean that in the utmost sincerity. When I went to go buy zombie makeup for a home school dance my friend had invited me too, the lady working behind the makeup counter spent a hour with me walking me through my make up options and showing me how each worked. She even gave me tips on how to use each product properly and gave me instructions on how to get to effect I was looking for. Her kindness extended even further, as she gave me advice on how to get the most by spending the least amount of money. That was only one of the amazing customer service experiences I have had at Natasha's Attic. I have to admit, however, the experience that really sold me on Natasha's Attic, was a few weeks before my sixteenth birthday. I had planned a large Alice and Wonderland themed sweet sixteen. I had asked all my guests to come in Alice and Wonderland related costume. My group of friends, being mostly friends I had met through acting, I knew would be willing to go all out and have fun with my request. My birthday being in the beginning of December, however, came with one major drawback. Costumes were hard to come by. I had looked all over for the perfect Alice costume but had only found slutty Alice or cheap looking costumes that weren't anything close to what I had imagined. Finally when we came to Natasha's Attic the lady behind the counter, who that day happened to be the owner, took me to her rack of Alice costumes. I was disappointed to learn they were just as sad and dejected looking as all the other dresses, that the previous costume store staff had tried to pawn off on me. I thanked the owner politely for all her help but she could see in my face I was disappointed. She pulled me aside and told me to follow her. She took me to the back and showed me the Alice dress they had on stock to rent out to customers. It was a beautiful long silk blue dress matching exactly what Mia Wasikowska had worn in the most recent film. It was perfect! My eyes lit up. To make a long story short, she made a huge exception and sold us the dress for exactly what it would have cost to rent it as a special gesture because she wanted my birthday to be special and for it to turn out the way I had always imagined it to be. Whenever I think of Natasha's Attic I think of her kind gesture and her caring heart.
11.) Dick's Bakery is a small family owned bakery on Meridian Avenue in San Jose. It is small, but mighty! They sell the best Burnt Almond Cake in the entire world and have the nicest staff. The sales staff used to give me a free "chocolate swirl cookie" (God knows what the actual name for those cookies are) every time we would come into pick up a Burnt Almond Cake for a family birthday.
I hope this post has inspired to go check out some of the Mom and Pop Shops near you! You never know what cute unique business you might come across!
Bisous,
Emily & Liana (Limly)
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