I feel compelled to confess this simple truth: I love Target.  My Wife and I shop there all the time, not to say we shop excessively. We both think of ourselves as modest and frugal, and we rely on their affordable prices to get the products we need regularly: food, clothes, and household goods.   We loath Wal-Mart, and at the same time, I realize it is completely hypocritical to give Target a free pass,  since they too are a large faceless multinational corporation, easily vivified.  I also realize that this is not a perfect world, and we’ve all got to make our own way in it.  That being said since I heard that a new Target Store was going  to be built in walking distance from my front do

Chances are you’ve heard of Etsy. It’s the world’s most expansive marketplace for handmade and vintage items. With neighborhood networks and a shop-local function, Etsy is revolutionizing the way people shop online. I spoke to artist and team leader of SactoMetro Etsy Street Team, Marianne Bland, about her team of local artists and craftsmen representing the Sacramento area on Etsy.com   Tell me about Sacramento’s Etsy Team SactoMetro Etsy Street Team has soap makers, painters, people making spiritual items, fine art…just a huge variety of items. We have people doing it to supplement jobs, full-timers, mothers at home school… It's an interesting group of people trying to help each other

Arden Fair Mall sported well-behaved crowds today. Last night a midnight sale for the new Air Jordan athletic was cancelled when potential shoe buyers rushed mall doors and started pushing others. That sale was cancelled. This afternoon the scene seemed like a normal, bustling shopping day right before Christmas: Parents and kids endured lines waiting for Santa pictures to be taken, shoppers traversed escalators and stores,lovers sneaked kisses, clerks and delivery persons carried on. Here are some scenes:                           SacPress Photos | Kati Garner          

 I was expecting chaos, crowds of procrastinating shoppers rushing about in a total frenzy. Instead, it seemed like an ordinary day at the Downtown Plaza, except with fewer stores than I remembered. With lower anxiety than anticipated, I imagined all sorts of people would be willing to let me in on their last-minute shopping adventures. Most of the people I asked were not Christmas shopping, or at least that's what they told me. With that said, I did manage to talk to a few interesting shoppers. The first people willing to share was an engaged couple, relaxing on a luxurious green velvet couch in the furniture department in Macy's. They were shopping for their parents. His dad is getting

I visited one of my favorite brew pubs on Thursday evening with my wife and son. Brew It Up which is located on the corner of 14th and H Street in downtown Sacramento. While wine is my first love, I am an absolute freak for hops. If you are not familiar with Brew It Up, let me bring you up to speed. Owner Michael Costello opened the original location in Davis 13 years ago. The first spot was more of a place for locals to do some home brewing. Along the way Mr. Costello decided to go the route of a full service restaurant and move the operation to Sacramento. This establishment is truly one of a kind in the area as it covers all of the bases. You can come in for a beer, glass of wine or a

More than 95 regional artists and craftspeople will offer their unique gift items during the Crocker Art Museum’s Holiday Art & Craft Festival at the Scottish Rite Center, located across from the main entrance of California State University, Sacramento, at 6151 H Street. Visitors will support the Crocker and local artists while they shop for everyone on their holiday list with an array of gift items and price ranges. The artist’s creations for sale include jewelry, ceramics, paintings, gourmet food, a variety of unique holiday items and more. You can also capture the holiday season by having photos taken with a Victorian Santa Claus in the front lobby. Attendees will also enjoy free parki

Dr. Seuss would have had a field day describing the hats at The Village Hat Shop in Old Sacramento. With more than 1,000 styles and 120,000 hats between its four locations and two warehouses, this is one store worth tipping your hat to. The company got its start in 1980 in San Diego as a specialty western-style hat store banking on the emerging cowboy hat trend, which was propelled by the television show "Dallas" and the John Travolta movie "Urban Cowboy." When the cowboy fad died out, the company began stocking different styles of hats. Today, patrons of the shop can find anything from a fedora, beret, trilby, a newsboy or even a Panama at The Village Hat Shop, located at 123 K St. "W

The Crocker Art Museum and the Creative Arts League of Sacramento are seeking local artists and craftspeople to showcase their work in the annual Holiday Art & Craft Festival taking place November 27-29, 2009. This event features a variety of crafts including jewelry, ceramics, painting, gourmet food, knit items and much more. The Holiday Art & Craft Festival will take place at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 6151 H Street, located across from the main entrance of California State University, Sacramento. The event regularly attracts 5,000 to 7,000 shoppers each year, and the venue features ample room for exhibitors and plenty of free parking. Vendor applications are available online

Among the many messy youth, Tanisha Boston puts the F in fresh, there's nothing like matching your glasses with glasses on your vintage T-shirt. Soulful in her skinny jeans with oversized gold hoops and a honey colored bomber jacket she keeps it real.

As a child born in the eighties, I didn’t have time for much of a love affair with the vinyl record. A few years laid out on our brown shag carpet listening to the soft whir and tick of the record needle – gone in a flash with the appearance of the compact disc player. With its built-in lasers and shiny discs that occupied less space on cramped apartment shelves, the new device easily charmed our family. The records were quickly scuttled away in pine boxes to the dank recesses of our storage space. There was no looking back. Now almost three decades later, armed with an iPod, a BlackBerry and a lovely home network of Macintosh computers, I find myself happily rediscovering vinyl. And I’m

My first shopping trip to Safeway with a reusable shopping bag of my own proved to be very successful. I finally used my Sacramento Press grocery bag to get a few necessities and was pleasantly surprised by how much I could fit into it.  Exactly how much did I fit into the bag, you ask? Let me count the groceries:  3 boxes of cereal A half gallon of milk 4 frozen dinners 3 bags of frozen vegetables 9 yogurts 2 packages of cheese 1 loaf of bread 1 package of tortillas 5 cans of soup    The Safeway bagger made it all fit perfectly. While it was heavy I was happy to be only carrying one bag and more importantly knowing that bag was not plastic.  If I had a family of five to fee

This Black Friday seemed to be the year of the flat screen televisions. In almost every cart at Fry's Electronics was a giant flat screen TV sitting in a tilted position in carts. Shopping on Black Friday is pure insanity. It's the frenzy of the event that has drawn me in for the second year. Fry's Electronics this year was no exception. This was my first Black Friday at Fry's. Black Friday gets its name from the economics of the day. Generally it's the day of the year when retailers become profitable or "go into the black." And it's always the Friday after Thanksgiving. As with many establishments, when I showed up at 4:30 A.M. I was about 800th in line. The line took me to parts of t

The City of Sacramento Department of Neighborhood Services announces: City of Sacramento’s Annual Gift to Shoppers Downtown and midtown visitors need not pay parking meters on designated days. Shoppers in downtown and midtown Sacramento will once again enjoy free on-street parking during select days of the holiday season. Designed to encourage holiday shoppers to patronize downtown and midtown businesses, the program will be in effect during the post Thanksgiving weekend: all day Saturday, November 29, and Sunday, November 30. (Thanksgiving Day is always a parking meter holiday.) The program will resume during the holiday period beginning Saturday, December 6, through Thursday, December