Ok, if you stood outside this store and threw 99 pennies in the air, 98 of them would hit the *other* 99 Cent Store across the street - seriously. This brand spanking new store is less than 3 weeks old and is across the street from the older one that has been around for 20+ years.
NEW STORE - LADERA HEIGHTS
6921 La Tijera Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90045
OLD STORE - Still open across the street - LA TIJERA
6854 La Tijera Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90045
This new store features acres of free parking in the back lot and since it is in an old Vons store, it is HUGE! The aisles are wide and merchandise isn't packed into every square inch of display space like it is in the smaller store across the street, plus there are tons of cash registers!
For cheap stuff all year long like gift wrap, greeting cards (OMG 20 Christmas cards for 99 cents, yes!), you can't beat this place. For cleaning supplies like Comet, sponges, bleach and ammonia... meh sometimes Ralphs has the same prices, but not all the time. Personally I don't think their laundry detergent cleans as well - if you have to use twice as much cheap stuff to clean your clothes, then just buy Tide IMHO, but the fabric softeners are the same as in stores. If you are a crafter or woodworker and need steel wool or sponges for painting techniques or masking tape or just stuff you need to thrash then toss, this is the place. Got kids who love Disney? They always have Disney brand small toys and school supplies. They also sometimes have Armor All and Turtle Wax car cleaning supplies, which blows me away - good-bye Pep Boys LOL
I was not a fan of the 99 Cent Stores outside of getting good, cheap holiday stuff for a long time, but now with a tighter budget, I'm all for most of their merchandise. I am irrationally wary of their food - I know, generic is the same as brand name, but that's me - but the candy, fresh produce and non-refrigerated grocery sections are comparable to the regular stores. I stick with name brands like Chex, C&H, etc. - but I never had a problem with an "off brand". My issue with cheap food is that it is usually full of salt and sugar and pretty much unhealthy, having said that, I usually buy a lot of fresh food like the squash that comes 3 to a package, the 5 pound bag of potatoes, asparagus, artisan lettuces, bags of shredded carrots, etc. They make it easy to go vegetarian-ish :) Heck sometimes they even have Tofu!
You do need to read the packages, just as you would in any grocery store. I like cheese, but the cheese section has "cheese product", cheese spread, and hey look, *real* cheese - the labels are made to mimic common familiar band names, so don't get stuck. Some people don't care, I know, but just saying...
The odd thing is that they plan to keep both stores open - and odder yet is that each store carries some different merchandise. 99% (get the pun?) of the stuff is the same, but on today's trip for Thanksgiving dinner supplies, we went to both stores and the older store features brand name bread (Sara Lee, Wonder) from an outlet and the new store had a smaller variety of bread, but had Russian dark bread which you never see outside of Bristol farms or maybe a good Ralphs.
All the sections at the new store are at least twice as large as the old one - school supplies, hardware, kitchen supplies, are all huge. We even found telescoping curtain rods that are at least $4 each at Home Depot, that doesn't sound too bad, but when you have 10 windows to decorate, $10 vs. $40 is a big deal! Same for random hardware things like hex wrenches or an Xacto knife you may only need once a year, why pay full price?
If you bake a lot, the aluminum bakeware section will save you money, read the labels though - some items are packed 1 in a package, 2 in a package or 3 in a package - if you need 3 piepans, look for the 3 for 99-cent ones, not the single 1 at 99 cents each.
The frozen food section was not the size of the old Vons freezer section, it's maybe as big as a 7-11 freezer section, but they had a lot of frozen fruit and Red Baron microwave pizzas along with frozen burritos, Icee brand treats and a bunch of other stuff.
The produce section is clean and spread out and not as crammed as some of the stores that were never meant to have a produce section. On our trip today they had grapes, eggplant, bagged salads, pomegranates, garlic, squash, tomatoes and a lot more.
Anyway this is a great store in a great location, just read the labels of what you buy and you will definitely save some money!
p.s. and yes, we did wait in line for 45 minutes on the grand opening to have a shot at the flat screen TV raffle, no luck on that but everyone got like $20 of free groceries on the way out! read more