Shopping Notes

Can a store called Good Stuff have stuff too good for B'port shoppers?

We dined the other day at Mother Theresa's, the Italian restaurant across the street from the Lake Theater, when we strolled past the store called "Good Stuff."

Scooter and I went in and were pleasantly surprised to hear some Beatles music on the sound system. Mmmm, the good ole days. "Yeah, they're timeless," observed one of the store employees. We browsed a bit and were even more pleasantly surprised to discover that Good Stuff actually sells "good stuff."

Must be a new truth-in-advertising trend sweeping the town, I muttered.

Scooter observered that Brazosport shoppers are under the misapprehension that they have to go to Houston to buy "good stuff."

"Like, shopping envy?" I inquired.

"Yeah, Sigmund," she replied, knowing I recently had been reading a biography of Sigmund Freud, who had floated a theory that women are afflicted with another sort of envy.

'Course, some retail establishments around these parts DO leave much to be desired. The outfit that took over "A Curious Place" coffee/gift shop has turned the place into something that's not even mildly interesting, much less curious. They even gave it a bland name, "The Other Store."

We had poked fun in the past at the "New Age-y" vibe emanating from A Curious Place, but now we feel bad at our cynical attempt at humor since we miss the place.

Good Stuff used to be located in the same Oyster Creek shopping center (where a car in front of Food King caught fire yesterday), but the owner, Elizabeth Good (get it? Good Stuff/Elizabeth Good?), decided to move over to Circle Way and set up shop next to Cafe Annice, which appears to still be doing a brisk business.

The new store has about four times the space as the previous shop, we were told.

We don't really know if Good Stuff's move was successful, since we didn't want to pry, but the more commodious retail space enables the shop's goods to be displayed in a much more handsome fashion.

While we were there, we chatted up the girl behind the counter, a cute college coed who's working there for the summer.

That's when Scooter observed that people around here think they have to drive to Houston to buy nice home furnishings.

The cute college coed said Good Stuff's owner was in Dallas at that very moment picking out a bunch of new stuff at Big D's "Market" to bring back down to Good Stuff.

"Well, she better not bring back too good a stuff cause this is a Wal-Mart kinda town, not a good stuff kinda town," I opined.

"Oh shutup," Scooter said.

The cute college coed chuckled.

Anyhow, Scooter likes the place so much she had her niece fly down from Oklahoma, pick out a bunch of new stuff for a house she just purchased, and haul it back in a U-Haul.