Things to see

Today was the day that I'd planned to go see the new Fry's in Oxnard which opened a couple weeks ago. Last Sunday evening as I was preparing to depart for Atlanta I found out about the opening of the Apple store in the Oaks Mall, so that was added to the list.

And then this morning while catching up on various neglected feeds, L.A. Observed called out something that caught my eye, a brewhaha about hidden Hummers caused by a local blogger (an engineer in his mid forties, I swear it's a disease). One more item for the list. I wasn't too surprised by the discovery, there's a Ford dealer in Pasadena who has been keeping more than a hundred vehicles on a dirt lot owned by SCE located next to our building. There used to be a Utility Man Rodeo there each year, I've been wondering where that might have relocated to. I guess I'll need to take some more pictures.

Hummer Hunt

I started with the local Hummer dealership on Auto Mall Drive (or Duesenberg Drive as the locals and street signs still call it). We have pictures. I was surprised to note so few Hummers on the lot (I think I saw six, one of which was an '04). Then I wandered off to the Westlake Hyatt (a nice hotel, my aunts usually stay there when they come to town and we've been there for several events over the years) to see what I'd never noticed before.

Yep, sure enough. The eastern corner of the Townsgate Road complex was filled Hummers and there was a long line of them just south of the 101 freeway. It's interesting that the satellite image shows no cars, I don't think the Google satellite data is very old either. While wandering around, I noticed something that seemed out of place and wandered over to check it out. The local Infiniti dealer is also using this space. After taking a few pictures, I started seeing this batch of cars in baggies in an odd light (colored no doubt by the goofy movie I watched on the plane back from Atlanta yesterday, The Island — an overly long Twilight Zone episode with lotsa stuff that blows up).

Before leaving, I wandered a bit down the line of Hummers and found my favorite. How long does a vehicle need to sit in a lot before someone scrawls "Dead Battery" on the windshield? I'm guessing quite some time.

When I was talking about it this evening with the kids, Adam mentioned that they used to keep a whole bunch of Hummers on the top level of the parking garage at the Janss Marketplace.

Fry's

The new Fry's in Oxnard was quite a shock. It's quite well lit, has a good layout and the aroma of fresh coffee seems to be everywhere.

It's been quite a while since I've been to any of the Fry's stores here in SoCal except for the one in Burbank, and that one has seemed dark and disorganized from the day it opened (or shortly afterward when I dropped by). I've only been to the Manhattan Beach store twice, as it opened after we moved away from the South Bay. It's also been quite a long time since I've been to the Woodland Hills location, preferring to defer the whole thing until I can find a way to drop into Burbank. Driving down to Oxnard is not only closer, but a heck of a lot less stressing. Besides, the Conejo Grade is always a great view (and often fun to drive, assuming some maneuvering room).

The new place in Oxnard has a lot of room, and actually cannibalizes some of the room in the middle of the store to create a coffee bar. It's a nice touch. I was tempted to wander in and overspend on a cup of coffee a couple times.

There were some other surprises.

• They've got a telescope section which may be driven by the good viewing options in this area; I'm not sure, but I welcome it. I came home with some items to research.
• They're also selling major appliances. That could be in response to outlets like Best Buy, but I hadn't seen it before (and have no idea how competitive it might be).
• The DVD section was still small, yet completely disorganized. I figured I'd check out some new stuff and couldn't find any.
• Home theater is big. They've got a nice listening room and a wonderful theater with some expensive projection devices. I did find it hard to compare and contrast reasonably priced projection equipment given the room they've set aside for it.
• I was surprised to find only one tiny motherboard. Given the increasing popularity, I was hoping to find more options.

Apple store

Yes, it's an Apple store but it the dinkiest I've ever been in. Unlike every other corporate store I've seen thus far, it's too small to have a training area. It's small enough that there is only a tiny area in the back set aside to hawk non Apple products. On the plus side, it has a genius bar.

I guess Apple was desperate to have a physical location in this upscale burb that can draw customers from Simi Valley, Agoura and Camarillo and settled for less than ideal dimensions to get it. I think they could have done better, but it's nice to have a store only minutes away.

Posted by Dave at November 5, 2005 10:11 PM