I'm finally heading out for another real vacation next week, heading up to Vancouver for a few days and then going to see my grandparents (who live just on this side of the border). Nothing too exotic, but there are some cool retail things I'm planning on checking out, some new and some a repeat from last time, so I'm excited to share all of that once I'm back! I'll be back a week from Monday if everything goes according to plan.
That is a pretty strange sign. The sign for the shopping center across the street is pretty strange too and that's not even counting the old Office Depot logo! Seeing that original Office Depot logo is strange anywhere these days, but it is especially strange seeing it in California where I think they used that strange stencil version logo (perhaps due to their entry via acquisition of Office Club in that area?) for at least part of the 1990s.
ReplyDeleteI also don't see too many parking lots with spots for compact cars these days! Around here at least, there wouldn't be too many people who even possibility could park in those spots except maybe for the handful of people who have Nissan Versas, Kia Rios, and Mitsubishi Mirages (all of which have some level of popularity here, enough to make one wonder why those types of cars have mostly been discontinued!). Fry's Electronics used them here. Speaking of which, the North Houston Fry's (former Builders Square II in what was once a Kmart power center with BSII, Pace, and a regular Kmart) is currently being demolished so a Joe V's Smart Shop can be built there (Joe V's being HEB's deep discount supermarket). I wouldn't think Joe V's will keep Fry's compact car spots, but Joe V's packs such large crowds, and HEB usually uses narrow parking spots to maximize the number of spaces, so maybe they will!
I wish I could have told you about this before it happened, but it looks like my favorite basketball team, the LA Clippers, played Portland in Seattle in a preseason game at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Ok, I know that isn't the name of the arena anymore, but I'm not using the dumb corporate name! I think the Clippers played a preseason game in Seattle last year too. I guess Clippers owner Steve Ballmer likes to play there when he can. From watching the highlights of the game, I don't know why Seattle has Pokemon logos on their basketball court, but they do! Otherwise, I guess it's a pretty nice looking court. It is Sonics-like without it actually being a Sonics court.
Enjoy your vacation, hopefully there will be some interesting Canadian retail spots to see!
The West Pointe sign is definitely unusual, and pretty cool for a generic strip mall -- it actually has neon! That's where Walmart was before they moved across the street (both stores seem to have been built around the same time, but Walmart clearly did far better than Kmart despite Kmart being the only one to build a supercenter!) and the whole shopping center doesn't ever seem to have done well, with multiple places where it was clear that more buildings were never built.
DeleteInteresting, compact spots are still pretty popular around here -- I guess everything's bigger in Texas! You don't really need to have that tiny of a car to park in compact spaces -- my parents' old Forester never had trouble fitting in those spots, though their new Outback might have a bit more trouble. Unsurprisingly, lots of people in my neighborhood have very small cars, with Fiat 500s and Mini Coopers being particularly popular (yes, even though the Fiat 500 was discontinued 5 years ago and wasn't known for its reliability, I still see quite a few of them around!) along with less interesting ones like the Chevy Spark and Toyota Yaris.