Shopping

Sun., Oct. 24, 1999

Shopping reigns as our national pastime. If it’s true that people vote with their feet, then Spokesman-Review readers are voting at area malls, at the new downtown River Park Square, at home improvement stores and at strip malls.

Shopping’s more than just picking stuff out, paying for it and hauling it home. It’s a social activity, it’s hanging out, seeing and being seen, posing, showing off, browsing, relaxing, getting ideas, being entertained.

Folks tired of cocooning head for the mall to talk, watch movies, eat and people-watch. And, while they’re there, they also do some shopping.

Department store

1. Bon Marche

Some folks might not be able to think about The Bon Marche without humming that Harry Belafonte song: Day-O, (one-day sale-o.) Catchy tunes aside, readers know well where to say hello to a good buy.

The Bon first opened in Seattle in 1890, modeled after a department store in Paris that still shares the same name. Most of the Bon stores are in Washington, with a few scattered throughout the rest of the Northwest. With three locations in Spokane and one in Coeur d’Alene, there’s likely one not far from your neighborhood.

Like any place worthy of the title department store, shoppers can purchase everything from a pair of socks to a living room couch.

2. Nordstrom

3. J.C. Penney

Honorable mention: Sears, Target

Women’s clothing store

1. Nordstrom

2. Bon Marche

3. J.C. Penney

Honorable mention: Lamont’s, The Gap

Men’s clothing store

1. Bon Marche

2. Nordstrom

3. J.C. Penney

Honorable mention: Hamer’s, Eddie Bauer

Children’s clothing store

1. Gapkids

2. Target

3. Gymboree

Honorable mention: Baby Gap, Sears

Jewelry store

1. Pounder’s

2. Jewelry Design Center

3. Fred Meyer Jewelers

Honorable mention: Dodson’s, Ben Bridge

Floral shop

1. Just Roses

2. Liberty Park Florist

3. Appleway Florist

Honorable mention: Peters & Sons, Mel’s Nursery

Music selection

1. Hasting’s

2. Sam Goody

3. 4000 Holes

Honorable mention: The Sower, Fred Meyer, Barnes & Noble

Video selection

1. Hasting’s

2. Blockbuster

3. Hollywood Video

Honorable mention: Premier Video, Safeway

Home electronics

1. Circuit City

A walk into any home-electronics outlet is, for some of us, an immersion into the best kind of toy store possible. The very notion of home electronics energizes us more than a triple-shot of Starbucks espresso. To stroll along the aisles, past the big-screen television sets, the multi-platter DVD players, computers that boast enough megahertz to power the Pentagon, is to tempt even the most prudent buyers among us to clutch for a credit card. And for Spokesman-Review readers, at least since the closure of last year’s top vote-getter — Future Shop — the resulting sales are likely to happen at Circuit City.

2. CompUSA

3. Costco

Honorable mention: Magnolia Hi-Fi, Huppin’s

Sporting goods

1. Gart Sports

2. REI

3. Big 5

Honorable mention: White Elephant, General Store

Home furnishings

1. Burgan’s

2. Walker’s Furniture

3. Pier One Imports

Honorable mention: Dania, Heilig Meyer

Bookstore

1. Auntie’s

2. Barnes & Noble

3. Hasting’s

Honorable mention: B. Dalton, Waldenbooks

Bicycle shop

1. Garland Cycle

2. Wheel Sport

3. Columbia Cycle

Honorable mention: Bicycle Butler, N. Division Bicycle Shop

Antique shop

1. Aunt Bea’s

2. Vintage Rabbit

3. Antique Emporium

Honorable mention: Finder’s Keepers, VOA Thrift Shop

Kitchen shop

1. Copper Colander

2. Williams and Sonoma

3. Lechter’s

Honorable mention: Bon Marche, Pier One

Pet store

1. Northwest Seed & Pet

2. Petco

3. Petsmart

Honorable mention: Evergreen Pet, Duncan’s Pet Shop

Nursery/garden shop

1. Northwest Seed & Pet

2. Eagle Hardware & Garden

3. Mel’s Nursery

Honorable mention: Ritter’s Nursery, Stanek’s

Store for teens

1. The Gap

2. Hot Topic

3. Zumiez

Honorable mention: Bon Marche, Spencer’s

Pharmacy

1. Rite Aid

2. Walgreen’s

3. (tie) Safeway, Shopko

Honorable mention: Rosauer’s, Albertson’s

Supermarket

1. Safeway

Competitors and some skeptical shoppers scoffed when Safeway introduced its “club card” discount program here last fall. But plenty of people have joined the club — enough to make Safeway the resounding supermarket winner in our Reader Review balloting for the second straight year. The California-based grocery chain, the nation’s second-largest, operates 30 stores in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

2. Albertson’s

3. Tidyman’s

Honorable mention: Rosauers, Yoke’s

Hair salon/barber

1. Great Clips

Teens flock to Great Clips for Caesar cuts and styles like the stars of the hit TV show “Friends” are wearing. And, when they walk out the door of the hair salon, they’re liking how they look. At least that’s what readers said when they voted for the area Great Clips hair-cutting salons as their favorite.

Great Clips general manager Debbie Hallam says the salons are clip and perm only — no nails or hair coloring — and about 65 percent of the clients are male.

“The boys ask mostly for Caesars — about 1 inch on top with the hair fading to 1/4 inch on the sides,” says Michele West, manager of Great Clips at Five Mile Shopping Center. “Teen boys also ask for bowl cuts. The girls want their hair shoulder-length and layered around the bottom.”

Thousands of haircuts a month are done at the seven Spokane Great Clips salons. An eighth Great Clips will open at 13th and Grand; the first in Coeur d’Alene opens at Silver Lake Plaza, both in early November.

2. 14th & Grand Salon

3. Fantastic Sam’s

Honorable mention: Supercuts, Dan’s Barber Shop

Thrift shop

1. Value Village

2. Goodwill

3. Northwest Christian Thrift

Honorable mention: St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army

Home improvement store

1. Eagle Hardware

2. Home Depot

3. Home Base

Honorable mention: River Ridge Hardware, Heights Home Center

Auto dealer

1. Wendle Ford

Wendle Ford, a division of Wendle Motors, won as top automobile dealer in the region. “That’s exciting news,” said company president Chud Wendle. Wendle Motors, with two giant dealerships on North Division (one across from NorthTown, the other at the Y) sells 450 to 500 new and used vehicles a month. New models bear the nameplates of Ford, Nissan, Infinity, Isuzu and Suzuki.

Wendle credits the victory to a bigger focus on building strong customer relationships. “We want to retain them,” he said, citing competition with the Internet as well as other dealers.

The Appleway Automotive Group, the runner-up, also sells numerous new models, including Chevrolet, Toyota, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Audi and Mitsubishi, from its dealerships along East Sprague in the Spokane Valley.

2. Appleway

3. Lithia Camp

Honorable mention: Dave Smith Motors (Kellogg), Foothills Lincoln-Mercury/Mazda, Downtown Toyota, Dishman Dodge

Auto repair shop

1. Alton’s Tires

2. Wendle Ford

3. Lithia Camp

Honorable mention: Appleway, Foothills Lincoln Mercury, C&H Auto Repair, Les Schwab, Mechanic’s Pride

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