Specialty shopping in California
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Victorian Vogue & the Costume Shop
For vintage and drag, from fabulous to outrageous, stop by the wonderful Victorian Vogue & the Costume Shop, which also rents costumes and has fun kids' stuff too.
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A
Whimsic Alley
Muggles love this magical store at 2717½, superbly designed to invoke visions of Diagon Alley, where Harry Potter and friends seem to be waiting just a portkey away. Flip through Hogwarts sweaters and capes at Haber & Dasher, find your wand at Phoenix Wands, or just poke around nooks overflowing with Harry Potter memorabilia and literature on piratology, dragons and wandmaking.
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B
American Girl Place
Little girls go ga-ga for this make-believe toyland where they can take their plastic friends to lunch or afternoon tea at the café or a revue-style show, get photographed for a mock American Girls magazine cover at the photo studio or give them a makeover in the doll hair salon. Make reservations early for the café and the show.
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C
American Automobile Association Mid-City
Supermarkets, gas stations, tourist offices and convenience stores all sell maps, but the best are those published by the American Automobile Association , which has numerous branches around town, including one in Mid-City. AAA's Central & Western Area map is the single most useful map.
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D
American Cyclery
If you’ve been lusting after a banana-seat Stingray, you might find one here. The oldest indie bike shop in SF, American Cyclery carries contemporary mountain and hybrid bikes as well as the occasional vintage model (the owner’s a collector). Though the shop hosts events and rides, alas, there are no rentals.
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E
Babeland
This women-owned store quite literally puts 'babes in Toyland' but don't expect the PG variety. Neatly arranged between candy-colored walls are dildos, handcuffs, strap-ons, vibes and other tools to tickle your fancy – or whatever. All staff are 'sex educators' happy to advise on how to play.
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F
Hollywood Book & Poster
Budding screenwriters know this hardscrabble shop is the place to purchase blueprints for future success – hundreds of TV and movie scripts all for sale between $10 and $15. If you bring one they want but don’t have, they’ll barter. Rare movie posters and life-size Elvis cutouts also available.
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G
Flight 001
Get ready for take-off at this stylish store designed to look like an airplane cabin. All the predictables are there – luggage to locks to guidebooks – plus some fun but handy items like pill towels that inflate in water, single soap sheets and cool lomo fish-eye cameras.
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H
Livinggreen
'It's not easy being green' opined Kermit, but after a trip to this eco-superstore we beg to differ. From natural-fiber rugs to Tassajara bamboo furniture to nontoxic paints and cleaners by Ed Begley, you'll find everything you need for your eco-lifestyle.
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Best In Show
Your dog would be one proud puppy in that crystal collar and your cat tickled pink by the fuchsia faux-fur kitty couch. Give them George Bush squeak toys to chew or catnip-infused bubbles to chase, and they'll be blissed out like hippies c 1967.
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Five and Dime
Though some parts of town are rather shabby, downtown is a surprisingly upbeat mix of restored buildings, county offices, restaurants and antique shops, such as the Five and Dime inside an original Woolworth's building.
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Pleasure Chest
LA's kingdom of kinkiness is filled with sexual hardware catering to every conceivable fantasy and fetish, though more of the naughty than the nice kind.
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New Lab
This pro lab will do right by your artistic inspirations, whether you're an old-school photographer who needs contact sheets and proof prints, a new media maven looking to output massive Giclee prints of digital photos, or in transition converting your slides to digital images. Turnaround time is usually 4 hours for photos, 24 for contact sheets and proofs.
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