ShoppersMap

Seal Beach Founder's Day Sidewalk Sale: October 9th and 10th

by Sasha Milena

  Seal Beach Main Street Postcard, photo via http://sbfoundersday.wordpress.com/

Seal Beach, CA is turning 95 this month and as part of the celebration a Main Street Sidewalk Sale is taking place on Saturday, October 9th through Sunday, October 10th.

 Seal Beach Old Town Historic District  on Main St.

Seal Beach's Historic District is located on Main St. just off of Pacific Coast Highway.  Seal Beach neighbors Long Beach, CA and is a few miles north of Huntington Beach in Orange County. 

  Seal Beach, CA Pier circa 1916, photo via http://sbfoundersday.wordpress.com/

 Seal Beach is the kind of place that has a friendly, small town kind of vibe.  Although it's laid back and relaxing town there is still plenty to keep you entertained.  The beautiful Seal Beach pier gives you a panoramic view of the ocean and surrounding beach cities while enjoying the cool ocean breeze. Walking down Main St. you will find a variety of restaurants, bars, and shops. 

  Castle Company Antiques in Seal Beach

Castle Company carries a variety of French & European Antiques including furniture, china, jewelry, silver and designer accessories.

  World War I French Poster

Walking into Castle Company you will feel like you just stepped into Vintage Paris with themed vignettes of new and vintage treasures.

 
 Owner of Castle Company, Jayne Royalty, photo via www.queenofthecastle.com

Owner, Jayne Royalty, has exquisite taste and is contstantly bringing in must-have items like an antique table owned by Coco Chanel.

 

Visit the Castle Company in Seal Beach where you will be treated like royalty and find chic interior furniture and decor for you home.

Castle Company Halloween Accessories 

  French Antique Lamp and Figurines from Castle Company

 Castle Company Antique Silver and Crystal
Caslte Company Antiques and Fine Gifts is located on 212 1/2 on Main Street in Seal Beach, CA. 562-296-8309. Preview more inventory and order online from Castle Company's website: www.queenofthecastle.com

Walk across the street to find Alamitos Antiques, where they specialize in Victorian era to 1920's antiques. 

  Alamitos Antiques in Seal Beach 

Alamitos Antiques will be offering incredible discounts on select items during the Founder's Day Sidewalk Sale.  

 

 Fun and Colorful Bakelite jewelry and accessories from Alamitos Antiques 

Alamitos Antiques also has a great selection of chandeliers and lighting fixtures. Visit Alamitos Antiques on 211 Main St. Seal Beach, CA 562-493-6618

 

Joanne's Antiques in Seal Beach, CA

 
Pair of Vintage Tile Paintings
 
Find vintage and estate jewelry, paintings, photos, and many more treasures in Joanne's Antiques.  Joanne's Antiques is located on 213 Main St. in Seal Beach, CA.

Visit Seal Beach on October 9th and 10th and celebrate 95 years of history.  Other events include a concert on the Pier Saturday, October 9th from 4-6 p.m. Catch the parade and the Red Car Museum on Sunday, October 10th.  If you love old photos stop by the Marina Community Center on October 27th and view a free slide show of selected historic photos from Seal Beach. For more information visit: www.sealbeachfoundersday.com

Find the stores mentioned above and more on the Long Beach and South Bay Antique and Retro Shopper's Map.

Retro Row 4th Street Fair: Long Beach Bike Fest

by Sasha Milena 

 
Retro Row in Long Beach has a distinct and unique feel.  The businesses and the people of 4th Street are passionate about the Retro lifestyle.  There are dozens of shops that sell items ranging from vintage clothing and furniture to roller skates. There is a Retro Barber Shop, a newly renovated Art Theatre, Restaurants, Bars, and Bike Shops.  I live, work, and play on 4th Street and I have everything I need within my fingertips. 

Art Theatre on Retro Row

It was only a matter of time before the rest of the world caught on to this exciting world I call home.  Antique and Retro Shopper's Map has played an integral part in literally putting 4th Street on the map.  After fourteen years of promoting independent businesses in Southern California the work has finally paid off and Retro Row is beginning to receive the acknowledgement it deserves.

Cyclone Coasters: Group of Retro Bikers in Long Beach

Bike Fest in Long Beach is a three day event with the third day concluding on 4th Street or better known as Retro Row. The 4th Street in Motion Festival will include bicycle-themed films, bicycle activities and workshops for kids, live music on the EDSEL Stage, and shopping. The Cyclone Coasters will be showing off their awesome Retro bicycles that day as well.

Retro Row Long Beach 
The Bike Film Festival in theArt Theatre starting at 11 a.m. May 9 will feature the classic “Bicycle Thief,” an independent French film, “The Triplets of Belleville,” and the finale will be a local bicycle film showcase starting with the premiere of Michael Bauch’s film, “Riding Bikes with the Dutch.”

The Commotions

The music stage is sponsored by the Pike Restaurant and Bar and the line-up so far includes The Commotions and Bear Face.  4th Street will be closed to traffic from Junipero to Cherry Ave and the stage will be set up near the parking lot that has the Edsel car on the corner.
Edsel Car on 4th and Cherry

After the concert come by the Pike Restaurant where you will not only find great food and drinks but also our Shopper's Map headquarters.

Pike Restaurant and Bar on Retro Row Long Beach 

4th Street Retro Row in Long Beach is a rockin' place to be so don't miss out on all the fun May 9, 2010. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit www.longbeachbikefest.org for more info and print out a Long Beach Shopper's Map for your shopping guide.

Cool turntables at Dyzzy's in Long Beach!

This cool vintage turntable is among the many unique 70's pieces in stock at Dyzzy's in Vinyl in Long Beach.

For more info on this and other great vintage stereo's, records, cassette's and CD's-check Dyzzy's blog here!

OC Register makes sweeping changes

For those in the OC who receive the OC Register the new changes trumpeted in this article have taken effect.

The relevance to antique and retro entrepreneurs?  This is yet another sign of the times and evidence we are entering an unparalleled  world of instant media, community media and specificity.  The main point in the article is that  due to the tremendous loss of ad revenue, readership, subscriptions, etc. much of the news paper is going on-line to remain relevant.

Note also when perusing the paper the amount of blogs-in fact users are encouraged to start their own OC Register blogs!  On page tow they now feature the "best of the blogs" and on virtually every page their are links to blogs and other on-line resources-the point being that they realize that people are now so accustomed to up to the minute reporting that the old newsprint format is simply tired.

The ability to create new and up to date info is as important for shop owners as it is for a newspaper.  Society is now inundated with computer devices of all sorts and instant satisfaction is becoming a necessity for virtually all businesses-virtual or those who also have a physical location.

Blogging is not going away and in fact continues to explode as the new medium of expression, community and commerce! 

Needless to say we're thrilled with all this validation of the point we're trying to make by bringing shoppersmap up to date and offering a blog portal for our valued customers!

Retro Row back in the LA Times!

The LA Times has once again given some good pub to Long Beach and of course mentions Retro Row-namechecking the Vintage Collective and Imonni! Check it out!

Did you know the term "Retro Row" was coined by shoppersmap founder Chris Reece?????? The now iconic term has now been mentioned in press ranging from the New York Times, LA Times (numerous times), the Long Beach Business Journal and many others.

As the leading promoter of antique and retro shops in SoCal we're always glad to see mentions in other media outletbe sure and alert us to any good press we can add to the blog!

SoCal Antique scam makes international news!

The noted international art museum blog museum-security has posted a very interesting post on the on-going SoCal Thai art scam here.   In coming weeks it will be very interesting to watch developments as investigators unravel what appears to a long term scheme.

The interesting thing to us of course beyond the local angle is the timeliness of the blog entries.  Museum Security is becoming the "voice" of international art security and it's very existence and the nature of the blog format is putting greater heat on scammers and thieves.

The blog is allowing security experts, museum staff and interested others to instantly communicate and publicly get the word out on crimes as they occur.  The expectation is that this type of communication will make it increasingly harder for thieves, forgers and appraisal cheats to get away with their crimes.

This has great implication for antique and retro shop owners in the sense that it shows yet again how the blog format is changing the nature of communication and business.  The participatory nature of blogs and the ability to add new content easily will drive the necessity of remaining current to keep customers interested in your items and shop.  Also in the event of theft-it's a great place to get the word out to help prevent resale or consignment of those items in "our world" so to speak.

It's a bloggers world so let's all participate and leverage these great tools!

Let us know about news and events!

Just a reminder to all bloggers and readers-be sure to let us know about news, events and other items of interest to the antique and retro community.

Whether art walks, once a month gatherings, economic trends or important notices it behooves us all to be aware.  We do our best to stay on top of any information relevant but appreciate any tips or press releases sent our way.

Also don't hesitate to submit blog entry ideas, questions or any other ideas we can all benefit from in some way.

The idea behind this blog is create a place where antique enthusiasts of all types can come to find stores, specific items, share expertise and get directions and tour ideas.  Let us know!

Retro Row in the News

Long Beach's Retro Row has received some great publicity via recent features in the Sunday New Times travel section and a front page story in the Long Beach Register.

The New York times describes the area as the "retro soul" of a changing Long Beach and features several of the store's long championed by the ShoppersMap Network.

The link to the full story is here.

The Register followed a few days later with a front page story that detailed the history of the area and the current wave of interest in the shops and their impact on the neighbor and city as a whole.   Congratulations to all the stores and people profiled-yet more evidence of the wisdom of rehabilitating urban areas with antique and retro districts to help drive the economy and improve the quality of life for all.

Welcome

Hi folks, I'm Chris Reece the owner of shoppersmap.com.  We're not a website-we're real people and we're based out of the Historic South Rose Park neighborhood in Long Beach, California. I'm an entrepreneur, musician and community leader raising my three boys with my lovely wife.

In addition to my interest in antiques-I'm second generation in the business-I own and operate a local restaurant/bar called the Pike.  It's located at 4th and Cherry and we feature great seafood at very fair prices, have a full bar and are home to the finest musicians in the area. Drop in and say hi anytime-everybody knows me.

In addition to my business and community interests I'm still an active musician.  I was part of the first generation of punk rockers and spent many years with the band Social Distortion.  I no longer tour with Mike and the boys but I'm fortunate to be an alumni of such a well respected band.  I have a vital interest in the Social D community and am proud of our place in rock and roll history.

Here at shoppers map our goal is to help our local antique and retro dealers let the world know what they have to offer.  Pictures and commentary can't replace the experience of physically visiting the stores but we hope to give as much of a feeling of the experience as possible.  We're hoping whether you are in Pomoan or Düsseldorf, Germany you'll want to make a visit to our historic district part of your travel plans.

Please look around and discover our little corner of the world and dont hesitate to comment, ask a question or buy something from my neighbors and friends.  Most of all we'd like to see you in person so you can really soak in the special vibe we feel is unique and really cool.

Welcome!