Category: Shop Burlingame

  • Tax Update – Last Holiday Season’s Results

    This won't be another partisan rant, just a simple update to the last B'game sales tax listing from April.  For 4Q12 on a year-over-year basis, sales receipts in town were up 5.1%.

    20 of the Top 25 sales tax generators are the same from 3Q12:  Apple Computer, Benihana, Cammisa Automotive, Chevron, Fiat of B'game, Garratt Callahan, Hyatt Regency, Kern Jewelers, Marriott, Mike Harvey Acura and Honda,  Putnam: Buick, Pontiac GMC and Chevrolet Cadillac and Mazda Volvo and Toyota, Rector Porsche Audi, Safeway, Technical Instrument, Walgreens and WW Grainger.

    The five businesses that cracked the Top 25 this time around are:  Cal Steam, Gap, Il Fornaio, Lululemon Athletics and Sephora.  Kudos to you five.

    A 23% increase in the city’s share of the countywide use tax pool allocation also contributed to the positive results.  Remember–Shop B'game!  The bigger the ticket item, the better.

  • Sales Tax Generators

    Since the Tesla sales tax discussion got going in town, I thought it would be a good time to revisit which businesses currently generate the most sales tax for the City.  The quarterly report works quite a ways in arrears, so these are the top 25 generators for 3Q12 sales that generate receipts to the City in Q4.

    The are in alphabetical order:  Advantage Rent A Car, Apple Computer, B&N Industries, Benihana, Cammisa Automotive, Chevron, Eagle Car Wash, The Elephant Bar, Fiat of B'game, Garratt Callahan, Hyatt Regency, Kern Jewelers, Marriott, Mike Harvey Acura and Honda, Payless Car Rental, Putnam: Buick, Pontiac GMC and Chevrolet Cadillac and Mazda Volvo and Toyota, Rector Porsche Audi, Safeway, Technical Instrument, Walgreens and WW Grainger.

    Autos and Transportation as a category accounted for about 20% of the Point of Sale receipts of just over $4.1 million.  Remember–Shop B'game!  The bigger the ticket item, the better.

    Mike Harvey Acura

  • Definitely a Gem

    There's a nice piece in the Daily Journal about one of the gems of B'game, Velma Santana, who has worked the cash register at the Pick of the Litter Humane Society thrift store since 1999.  It notes

    After retiring from Caltrans, Santana was asked by one of her closest friends to be a volunteer cashier. Five months later, she was hired because she said they needed someone reliable and knowledgeable to work the register. She just celebrated her 85th birthday and shows no signs of slowing down. 

    “The store is like my second home,” she said.

    Pick of the Litter collects donations such as clothing, furniture, books, jewelry and households items. Those items are then priced for sale. After rent and other expenses, the store has cleared more than $120,000 in net profits, which will greatly benefit the animals, said PHS spokesman Scott Delucchi.

    The shop is just a block south of B'way.  Say hi and congratulations to Velma the next time you are in there, I certainly will.

  • Au Revoir, Le Plastique

    Today is the first day of the rest of your shopping days and if you go, here is one sight you will not see.  Remember to bring your own bags or pay the dimes.

    Plastic bags_last ones

  • Tesla Rolling onto Rollins Rd.

    The topic of Tesla moving its Norcal sales and service center to Edwards CT off Rollins Rd. came up at the joint Planning Commission-City Council meeting a few weeks ago, but with all the hubbub about historic properties, I forgot to post about the Tesla tax dispute.  The Daily Journal piece covered it in advance of Monday's Planning meeting about the permit.  The issue is

    Burlingame’s position is it should get tax revenue since the sales take place in its city, said Meeker. On the other hand, Tesla’s model has been to pay the tax to wherever the car is delivered, Mefford wrote in a January letter to the city. For example, if a San Mateo resident orders a car and, once completed, the car is delivered to his or her home, then that city would get the sales tax. One of the conditions of the permit’s approval, as suggested by staff, is that Burlingame would get the tax revenue from sales from this site.

    I'm not sure the taxation part of this is a Planning issue, but they have to start somewhere.  I also don't see any easy way to "split the baby" on this nor is state law likely to be very clear.  One this is clear.  If you want high-performance electic wheels, Tesla is the way to go because Fisker laid off 150 of its last 200 employees last week.  They are apparently going down with $190 million of our taxpayer dollars.  So this could be real money.  As one local auto veteran says, "bring yer wife and yer pink slip to Burlingame"!

    I have seen both cars on the streets of B'game.  Here is a Fisker on Park Ave.

    Fisker on Park

    and the Tesla

    Tesla on Park

  • Pop-up Bowl

    The latest pop-up on the Avenue will make it or break it tomorrow as we assemble for the Niners' Super Bowl appearance.  Will we all be rushing out to buy Bowl-wear or just licking our wounds?  The Journal had a fun quote about parties

    A Super Bowl party is just bunch of smart-alecks making pithy wisecracks about a mass cultural event.  It's like Twitter, but with people.

    It's just too nerve-wracking for me to also have people over.  I'm just going to watch and hope to shop here on Monday.

    Super Bowl pop-up

  • Local LumVinary

    We have a number of luminaries in B'game in all sorts of walks of life.  One of our luminaries is really a lumVinary in that he is a luminary in the wide world of wine.  Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal had an article about drinking a wider variety of wines rather than the same ole, same ole vino.  Here's the latest quote that brings national attention to our little burg and our lumvinary

    I'll drink fewer of the wines that I already love, and more of the wines that I've somehow ignored.  The latter will likely prove easier to pull off than the former; most wine drinkers I know—including professionals and amateurs—have wines that they love and tend to favor. According to Gerald Weisel, proprietor of Weimax Wine & Spirits, in Burlingame, Calif., many of his customers want to drink the same wine over and over again.

    Mr. Weisel's New Year's wish would be for those wine drinkers to walk into his shop and ask for something " 'below the radar' or, as my Italian friends say, 'fuori strad'—off the road," he said.

    This is the fourth or fifth WSJ quote I have seen from Gerald over the years and his pithy nature shines through each time.  Gerald holds court six days a week at his family shop on B'way and adds a lot of flavor to our local scene.

    NYE 2023 update:  Ten years later, here's Gerald with his front page photo!

    Gerald DJ front page

  • More Tree Lighting Pics

    In addition to the BPD Mustang-pushing shown below this post, here are a couple of other fun photos from the night.  The first is the BIS choir being led by Mr. Simon who also led the band in a few holidays songs.

    BIS Choir_2012

    And Mayor Keighran reminded everyone about the upcoming Burlingame Ave Streetscape project which will have quite an impact on the street for some period of time but will end up being worth it.  After she reminded everyone to "shop Burlingame" she was joined by the other four councilmembers

    Council at Christmas tree lighting_2012

    Then Mr. and Mrs. Claus and the senior-most elf on staff took the stage for more singing and dancing!

    Santa and Elf2_2012

  • Just Hats?

    No one supports local businesses more than I do, but I have to ask–can you pay the rent a block off the Avenue with just hats?  If I needed a hat I would get it here, but I am getting that "cupcake" feeling……..

    Hat Shop

    I hope I am wrong.

  • Remembering Geo. Howard

    Our very own Joanne Garrison, author of the Burlingame Centennial book, has a retrospective piece in the Daily Journal about local architectural legend George Howard.  In it she notes

    Most of George’s architectural projects were either Neoclassical or English Tudor in design, reflecting the Gilded Age preference for all things European. The one major exception was the project for which he is best known, the Burlingame train station. In 1893, the newly formed Burlingame Country Club sought its own train station to welcome guests in style from San Francisco. George and his architect partner Joachim Mathisen chose a quintessentially California design for the station—that of a California mission. The train station, completed in 1894, is now designated as a California Historical Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places due primarily to its architectural significance as the earliest permanent example of California Mission Revival architecture.

    If you would care to learn more and perhaps add a bit of info (for you old timers), the Historical Society has a place for that too.  Here's the aforementioned book which is available at Books, Inc. and makes a great present during the holidays.

    Burlingame book

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