Metroland

Metroland Readers Poll '15: Goods and Services

 

Best Optical Store

1. Empire Visionworks

2. DiNapoli Opticians

3. LensCrafters

The recently rebranded Empire Visionsworks is your favorite, but local mainstays DiNapoli was a strong second.

Best Appliance Store

1. Sears

2. John D. Marcella and Son Appliances

3. Lowe’s Home Improvement

Sears may be struggling, but its Kenmore line of products clearly remains popular.

Best Antique Store

1. Silver Fox Salvage

2. Trojan Horse Antiques

3. Aunt Katie’s Attic

Only a handful of votes separated these perennially popular Albany, Troy and Scotia businesses.

Best Bookstore

1. Barnes & Noble Booksellers

2. The Book House

3. Market Block Books

The last standing national bookstore chain may have won, but it was close. And the Book House and Market Block—which are twin heads of one local bookseller—got the most votes combined.

Best Comic Book Store

1. Earthworld Comics

2. Aquilonia Comics

3. Zombie Planet

Earthworld is your superhero source for superheroes.

Best Garden Store/Nursery

1. Hewitt’s Garden Centers

2. Faddegon’s Nursery

3. George’s Market Nursery

If the top three finishers in this category were trees, then Hewitt’s would be the sequoia.

Best Florist

1. Lark Street Flower Market

2. Emil J. Nagengast Florist

3. Frank Gallo & Son Florist

Lark Street comes up roses in this category, but there was strong support for both Nagangast and Gallo. We’re wondering, what happened to former winner Price Chopper?

Best Kitchen Store

1. Different Drummer’s Kitchen: The Cook’s Resource

2. Lowe’s Home Improvement

3. Williams-Sonoma

Different Drummer’s is an all-round gourmand’s store—and you know it.

Best Furniture Store

1. The Old Brick Furniture Co.

2. Taft Furniture

3. Huck Finn’s Warehouse & More

Low prices were first in voters’ minds in this category.

Best Pet Supply Store

1. Benson’s Pet Center

2. PetSmart

3. Healthy Pet Center

Local, independent chain Benson’s edged out PetSmart in this popular category.

Best Gift Store

1. Wit’s End Giftique

2. Maggie’s Gift Shop

3. Romeo’s Gifts

More than 26,000 square feet of selling space gave Clifton Park’s Wit’s End Giftique a clear edge.

Best Wine/Liquor Store

1. Empire Wine & Liquor Outlet

2. All Star Wine & Liquor

3. Exit 9 Wine & Liquor

Our readers enjoy an adult beverage now and then (and again). We know because this was one of the most popular overall categories.

Best Women’s Clothing Store

1. Macy’s

2. Kohl’s

3. Truly Rhe

Times change and retail stores come and go, but Macy’s almost always wins. Props to Troy’s Truly Rhe for a solid showing.

Best Men’s Clothing Store

1. Macy’s

2. Kohl’s

3. Enigma Co.

We’re sensing a pattern here: Macy’s, Kohl’s, and an interesting indie shop in Troy—this time, the Enigma Co.

Best Children’s Clothing Store

1. The Children’s Place

2. Kohl’s

3. GAP Kids

When it comes to dressing your fancy brats, the national chains are seemingly unbeatable.

Best Consignment Clothing Store

1. Plato’s Closet

2. Goodwill

3. (tie) Polkadots, Salvation Army

Only Plato’s Closet and Polkadots are consignments stores. Plato’s is geared to teens, Polkadots caters to children; Plato’s wins. 

Best Sporting Goods Store

1. Dick’s Sporting Goods

2. (tie) Empire Mountain Sports, Goldstock’s

4. Play It Again Sports

The big chains may be overrepresented in this category, but local legends Goldstocks are hanging in there.

Best Head Shop

1. Northern Lights Smoke Shop

2. Orion Boutique

3. Déjà vu

Each establishment has its partisans, but Northern Lights heads the list.

Best Cigar/Tobacco Shop

1. Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe

2. Edleez Tobacco

3. Smoke Shop

Your perennial favorite—Habana Premium—wins again.

Best Holistic Shop

1. Crossroads Gifts & Wellness

2. Honest Weight Food Co-op

3. Hippies, Witches, & Gypsies

Crossroads in Schenectady specializes exclusively on health, wellness, and divine inspiration, and apparently inspiring readers to maximize their voting.

Best Art Supply Store

1. Arlene’s Artist Supply

2. Michael’s

3. Savoir Faire

Arlene’s wins big again—and with a large overall vote total reflecting the store’s high standing in the arts community.

Best Bicycle Shop

1. Downtube Bicycle Works

2. Plaine and Son

3. Troy Bike Rescue

The Downtube folks are the experts at all things cyclist, recognized by readers with their yearly win.

Best Toy Store

1. Toys ’R Us

2. G Willikers

3. Ta Da!

Wow, Toys really are Us, going by their voting score. But if you want something really special, why not try the locally owned runners-up?

Best Jeweler

1. Hannoush Jewelers

2. Kay Jewelers

3. Northeastern Fine Jewelers

It was close, but the family-run Hannoush Jewelers edged out the national chain.

Best Day Spa

1. Kimberley’s A Day Spa

2. Complexions Spa for Beauty & Wellness

3. (tie) White Sands Massage Spa, Roosevelt Baths

For our readers, Kimberley’s in Latham has the magic touch.

Best Musical Instrument Store

1. Parkway Music

2. Drome Sound

3. (tie) Guitar Center, Collar City Guitars

Parkway Music turned it up to 11, proving that they meet your musical needs with a 100-vote victory margin.

Best Apple Orchard

1. Indian Ladder Farms

2. Goold’s Orchards

3. Golden Harvest

Indian Ladder in Altamont won by a bushel load. That Rosie (the Highland heifer) really knows how to get out the vote.

Best Farmers Market

1. Troy Waterfront/Winter Farmers Market

2. Schenectady Greenmarket

3. Saratoga Farmers Market

Is it the selection? Is it the location? Is it the live music? Is it the fact that you’re guaranteed to run into someone you know? With the Troy Farmers Market, it’s all of the above.

Best Produce

1. Honest Weight Food Co-op

2. Troy Farmers Market

3. (tie) Price Chopper, Hannaford

They’re both so good that we’re guessing Honest Weight beat out TFM because it’s indoors year-round.

Best Shopping (Plaza)

1. Stuyvesant Plaza

2. Clifton Park Center

3. Mohawk Commons

A wipeout. Not. Even. Close. Stuyvesant Plaza dominated this category by more than 300 votes.

Best Shopping (Mall)

1. Colonie Center

2. Crossgates Mall

3. Wilton Mall

On the other hand, while Wilton Mall was a distant third, your loyalties to Colonie Center and Crossgates are more closely divided.

Best Shopping (Downtown)

1. Troy

2. Saratoga Springs

3. Albany

You really enjoy the compact, pedestrian-friendly downtown retail offered by Troy and Saratoga. Sorry capital city: Albany wasn’t in the running.

Best Shopping (Outlet)

1. Lee, Mass.

2. Lake George

3. Woodbury Commons

Lee has a lower sales tax. Lee wins.

Best Supermarket

1. Price Chopper/Market Bistro

2. Hannaford

3. Honest Weight Food Co-op

The perennial winners are one-two again, while Honest Weight, looking more like a supermarket in its new location, takes third. But really, have you people ever tried Shop Rite?

Best Health Food Store

1. Honest Weight Food Co-op

2. Whole Foods

3. Uncle Sam’s Health Food

Honest Weight was once the only real health food store in the area; 35 years later, and they’ve once again won this category by a landslide.

Best Record Store (Used)

1. Last Vestige Record Shop

2. River Street Beat Shop

3. FYE

As interest in new vinyl grows, so does your craving for classic vinyl. And Last Vestige wins with its mind-blowing selection. There was plenty of love for Troy’s RSBS, too.

Best Video Game Store

1. GameStop

2. Pastime Legends

3. Jay St. Video Games

The national chain with the ubiquitous mall locations won, but Pastime Legends and Jay St. both received strong support from gamers.

You should vote in this TU Xmas movie poll thingy

 

The Times Union Arts Talk blog is having a Merrie Movie Madness! competition/poll thingy, so you should go vote in it.

I am enamored of both the cinema and Christmas, so this is like Internet crack to me.

There are 4 brackets.

There's a Dickens bracket with 8 Scrooge movies (including Scrooged, pictured).

There's the Agressively Secular Christmas Flick bracket (which has 2 inspired, outside-the-box entries, Die Hard and Gremlins),

There's a Classic/Serious-If-Only Slightly-Religious bracket (It's a Wonderful Life, a trio of Bing Croby flicks, a foreign ringer, The Bishop's Wife, Christmas in Connecticut, and Minnelli's masterpiece Meet Me in St. Louis).

And, finally, a Santa bracket that includes real, fake and evil Kringles (Miracle on 34th Street--the 1947 original, not the John Hughes cock-up--and Bad Santa are the best films in this lot).

I will not try to influence your vote, except to ask this question: Could you live with yourself if your vote led to a Robert Zemeckis-directed motion-capture abomination, or Jim Carrey movie--or BOTH IN ONE--won this competition?

Prediction: I'll bet it comes down to A Christmas Story vs. It's a Wonderful Life, and the latter wins.

 

 

Turns Out Not Everyone Loves ACO

You know you've made it, I suppose, when your blog inspires another blog. Especially if the new blog is about how your blog sucks.

Ladies and Gentlemen, "Say No To ACO"

"I know this is not the first time Ms. Grafflin has used her blog as a way to advance her personal vendettas and quench her insatiable desire to cause drama where none exists. If you have a story about a personal experience with Ms. Grafflin and her blog, Albany Citizen One, please e-mail me at [email protected]. I'll be happy to share your story, while guaranteeing absolute confidentiality to the e-mailer. 

It is time for Ms. Grafflin to start acting like a responsible journalist." 

UPDATED To include a link to ACO.

Just Because

You should read the pro-DFH (please see definintion No. 2 here) blog Whiskey Fire, just because. They're upstaters too, who just happen to be SW of us at the other end of I-88. Here are two fun recent posts--post one and post two--about NPR.

Good Morning, Web

AOA wonders which is a better deal the Dalai Lama or Phish?  [short answer? neither]

DIA wonders "where's Jerry?"

Contributing Editor John Brodeur is Tweeting from SXSW. So is Kathryn Lurie.

Ed Dague has his first post up in a while.

Best Ayn Rand Putdown EVER

Is in the comments to this great Roy Edroso post at the Village Voice about the right-bloggers whimsical threats to "go Gault":

"These people are happy to wallow in that Ayn Rand shit, which is the Gone With The Wind of grocery store managers: It just points up the fact they're too fucking stupid to read Thorsten Veblen, or even Mark Twain."

Update: Oops. The commenter's name is coozledad.

I Really Really Really Wish I'd Written This Headline

This headline over at the Swing State Project:

NY 20: Panic! At Tedisco

Damn, that's good. (Hat tip: Daily Kos, where you can also check out Sen. Gillibrand's new TV spot for Scott Murphy.)

Update: Spelling error fixed.