Neighborhood Retail

One of the nice things about our neighborhood is the convenience of nearby retail. CVS is two blocks away, which makes prescriptions and greeting cards and personal care items really easy to get. Restaurants of all ethnicities beckon within walking distance. Where Aaron and I get our hairs cut is barely a block away. And there's a coffee shop right across the street from our house.

One place that we actually don't frequent that often, at least as customers, is the secondhand store, which is actually several stores all on the same block. But, walking home yesterday from an early-morning errand with the kids, I noted that the store was having a ten-cent book sale. So, when Amy's parents arrived, I took first her dad and Aaron, and then her mom, down the block to check things out.

Let me tell you: ten cents is a great price for books. I buy almost all my books used, at Half.com, and the lowest price there, including shipping and handling is about $2.75. Yesterday, I paid a little over half that in total, and got 14 books! My best find by far (well, actually my father-in-law found it, but graciously let me buy it) was an almost-new condition Colin Powell autobiography, signed by Powell himself. Not too shabby for one block away from our house, and for one shiny dime. What a bargain, and what a neighborhood.