Bleeding Neon

Albertson’s: It’s Your Store.

Oops, we take that back: It was your store, if you live near Tropicana and Eastern avenues or Lake Mead and Jones boulevards. Because those locations of the grocery store chain are scheduled to close on Feb. 19, according to Las Vegas Now.

And their sister Lucky stores aren’t, well, living up to their name either, because the following four locations are also shutting down on that date:

• 4801 W. Spring Mountain Rd.
• 2021 E. Lake Mead Blvd.
• 2400 E. Bonanza Rd.
• 1324 Craig Rd.

Hey, did anyone else notice all of these locations are in lower income neighborhoods and/or minority-majority areas? And who says institutional racism or class warfare are things of the past?

But hey, at least Las Vegas’ oldest predominantly Black neighborhood isn’t being walled in and cut off from downtown or anything, right?

It is? Oops.

Yes sir, we are living in a golden era of equality and opportunity for all.

Skipco, represent!

On the corner of Charleston and Jones boulevards is a 34,000-square-foot eyesore that was once the toast of the local business services community. For approximately 287 years now*, this prime chunk of real estate in the central southwest part of Las Vegas has been available for ANYONE to lease, buy, babysit, etc. Once upon a time, back when I had considerably more hair on my head and less on my body, this was the home of Skipco, a copying/printing/etc. company that once provided real competition for the 500-pound gorilla that was then Kinko’s.

In 2001, the long-time business expanded its headquarters at 6029 W. Charleston Blvd. to the behemoth pictured above, lauded both in the business press and by the City of Las Vegas, whose mayor Oscar Goodman declared April 11 “Skipco Day” (also the birthday of a high school girlfriend — why I remember this but not today’s grocery list I don’t know). At the time, the company was a $22 million a year operation, mainly helped by its status as a showroom for copiers and printers manufactured by Toshiba, who bought the previously family-owned Skipco in 1996.

Why does no one want to buy Baltic Avenue?!

But within a few years — and man, don’t ask me when exactly — the business, by then renamed Toshiba Business Systems, closed. From what little Google-fied research I did in preparation for this story, it seems Skipco’s former president, Gary Harouff, got caught with his hands in the cookie jar, at least allegedly, and Skipco was later in some other legal trouble over contract issues with clients.

Either way, that building has been up for lease or sale for as long as I can remember (which, again, is questionable in my advancing years). If anyone thinks this economic crisis of ours is new, well, I offer for evidence Exhibit A, Toshiba Business Solutions.

Now, I’m in no position to drop however many greenbacks it would take to lease or buy this space, but I do have some suggestions to potential investors for the types of businesses that could make best use of a 34,000-square-foot building in Las Vegas:

• Roller skating rink. Hey, why should Crystal Palace hold the monopoly on that in Sin City?
• A strip club for suburbanites. Really, should we have to trek to unsavory, industrial areas when you could bring the T&A to a location that’s less than a mile from about a half-dozen schools, churches and fast-food joints?
• Copy shop-themed nightclub. You know, go-go dancers in nothing but aprons atop copy machines, drinks served from behind a Formica counter, DJ requests sent via fax machines on the dance floor, etc.
• Whole Foods. Um, just because it’s like a five-minute drive from my house, and I’d like it there. Thanks.

* Maybe it wasn’t 287 years. Who’s counting?

Get those cheap threads while you can!

Steve & Barry’s, the retail chain that sells casual sportswear and celebrity-endorsed clothing lines for not more than $10 a pop, opened its first Las Vegas location early this summer. It’s also Steve & Barry’s last Las Vegas location, as the Port Washington, N.Y.-based company filed for bankruptcy in July, not a month after the Vegas location opened just west of the Meadows Mall on Meadows Lane near Decatur Boulevard.

Not surprisingly, most experts blamed rapid expansion for Steve & Barry’s epic failure. Now the company is in the process of liquidating its assets and closing all of its stores.

Stay tuned to Bleeding Neon for more Moments of Zen as we watch the House That Deregulation and Sleeping at the Wheel Built crumble down all around us. Happy Friday!