Sponsored by Kitchen Studio of Monterey Peninsula
Blow-out Sale Packs Former Clementine's
January 21, 2011
The anticipation felt like championship-game butterflies. It came in the minutes before the former Clementine's Kitchen—whose new owners Kristina Scrivani and Linda Hanger are liquefying to enable their shift to a more cooking-class-focused business (not so much retail) in April—opened for their fire sale earlier today.
The joint was already packed—and we arrived five minutes before the announced opening time of 10am. The line to check out wrapped around the space and took 20 minutes to move through. The good news there: That provided more of a chance to hear the priceless comments going back and forth among the foodie masses.
"Are you a hoarder?" came one.
"What do you want for that?" went another.
"Just what does that do?" one shopper asked another. "I don't know," she replied. "But it's $2."
I couldn't help hoping there was a behavioral psychologist there documenting the unique environment—part frenzy, part holiday, part camaraderie, part rugby scrum.
The sale is scheduled to continue through Sunday, 10am-4pm each day, but unless they're pulling out new chunks of the 10,000-item inventory, these vultures will already have picked the carcass clean by 1pm.
These beauties were all but a buck—gourmet olive oil, an orange battery-powered pepper grinder and flan!? I know: Whoah.
Then there's the buys that immediately boost quality of life at a fraction of retail: an automatic soda water maker with CO2 cartridges ($45 down from $150 tag) and a rack for baking fresh tortillas into crispy shells for $6.
And I made it out with my sanity too, at no extra cost.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID