Best Colorado Deals

Best Colorado Deals: Local Businesses Aid Tremendous Causes

Your money can do double duty this week as Colorado's business and charitable communities join efforts to help some tremendous causes.

Buy a quilt and help stop child abuse
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and it’s time for the spring quilt sale at Tennyson Center for Children. Every cent spent on the handmade crib, twin, double, queen and king-size quilts at the sale helps support Tennyson’s work to serve hundreds of abused and neglected children. The sale runs 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 17 and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 18 at the Tennyson Center, 2950 Tennyson St., 720-855-3317.

Best Colorado Deals: Easter, CSAs, Thrift Stores & more!

Save $5 on your Easter table centerpiece

    Warm weather is bringing crowds to Bonnie Brae Ice Cream, and they're noticing the vacancy at 747 S. University Blvd., a space occupied for 69 years by Bonnie Brae Flowers. Here’s the story. Owner Jim Gobert (who took over for his parents in the ’70s), had been yearning to buy the building for decades, and lease renewal was coming up in June. So he snapped at the opportunity to purchase new digs at 5595 E. Evans Ave., 303-758-9771.
    “It’s sad,” said Gobert. “I spent my whole life there. I don’t have any negative feelings about the old location, but the new building was just too good to pass up.”
    The transplant has put down strong roots, and business is blooming. To celebrate, on Saturday, April 3, anyone who comes into the store and asks will receive $5 off any purchase of $20 or more.
 

Best Colorado Deals: Garden supplies, farmers' market, & more

Outdoor dining beckons

A sure harbinger of Spring is the sale of Barlow Tyrie leisure and garden furniture at Birdsall & Co., 1540 S. Broadway, 303-722-2535. During the 19th annual sale, Saturday, March 20th through Sunday, March 28th, Colorado's only authorized Barlow Tyrie dealer is offering the pieces at the same prices that interior designers and landscapers pay, 30% less than Birdsall's regular price. The sale also includes 20% discounts on stone fountains, lanterns, basins and other garden items from Stone Forest and discounts of up to 50% on other items throughout the store.

Best Colorado Deals: Books, Furniture, Lingerie, Stuff for Kids

Olympic souvenirs, half price

Missing the Winter Olympics? Ease the pain with a visit to the USOC Training Center in Colorado Springs, where all Vancouver and Team USA Vancouver merchandise is half price at the USOC Training Center Shop, 1750 E. Boulder St., at the intersection of Boulder Street and Union Boulevard, 719-866-4792. All proceeds help support Team USA, which will make all those snazzy new items feel even better. The shop is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the Training Center also offers free tours -- so make a day of it.

Best Colorado Deals: bedding, socks, winter clearance, etc.

Spring is getting mighty close, and merchants are just about as tired of looking at their remaining winter clearance merchandise as you are of looking at the ice on the north side of your house.

Best Colorado Deals: Sample Sale, Passover goods, & more

Sample Colorado's goods for kids

            Did you know the world-famous Boppy was created by a Colorado mompreneur? Dozens of products for parents and children created and manufactured by local moms and dads are discounted by 30 percent to 80 percent at the Congrats from Colorado Sample Sale, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 27, at Ambajam, 3457 Ringsby Court, Taxi 2, 303-691-2236. We couldn’t find a list of firms participating in this sale, but previous participants have included Alpha Buddies, Ambajam, Baby Candy, Belle Baby Carriers, Boppy, Bruz Wear, The Bump, Funky Monkey Thread, Katy Tartakoff Photography, Memory Divas, My Favorite Bows; Oh, That Baby; Oshie Vintage, ShadyBaby and Sycamore Kids.

Best Colorado Deals: Prom dresses, cashmere, & more

Prom dresses, $10
          If you know any families who will have to strain the budget to buy a prom dress, please tell them about the Prom Dress Exchange, where more than 3,000 gorgeous, gently used and freshly cleaned prom dresses will be available between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., on Saturday, March 20, and Sunday, March 21, at Copper Fields Events Chateau, 4901 Marshall St., Wheat Ridge, 720-898-8388. No one will insist, but a $10 donation to defray the cost of cleaning would be appreciated.
           This is the 10th Prom Dress Exchange for Copper Fields owner Cheryl Wise, who knows that the need is particularly great this year. She wants to make sure every dress finds a proud owner.  So please help spread the word by printing out a few copies of this item and posting it on bulletin boards wherever high school girls or their families might see it.

Best Colorado Deals: Startin' off February with some great sales

Best Colorado Deals needs your support

            The Best Colorado Deals newsletter project has made it into the semifinals of the James L. and John S. Knight Foundation’s News Challenge, a grant program to support “innovative ideas that develop platforms, tools and services to inform and transform community news, conversations and information distribution and visualization.” Our proposal -- along with proposals from 221 other semi-finalists – can be seen on the foundation’s website. You can boost our chance of success and learn a lot about our plans if you read it – and, better yet, leave some positive feedback. To help, enter http://apply.newschallenge.org in your browser. When the page opens, click on "Read and Comment" and register to make comments. Enter “Best Colorado Deals” in the search box, and have at it. Knight will announce its choices for the 50 finalists on Feb. 15 – so hurry! And thanks!

Best Colorado Deals: Cherry Creek North Insidewalk Sale

Best Colorado Deals
Dedicated to independent shoppers and retailers. Be sure to catch Janet’s deals, highlighted each Friday on the 4 p.m. KUSA Channel 9 news broadcast!

 

Time for CCN’s Insidewalk Sale   
    The Cherry Creek North Insidewalk Sale runs through Jan. 31, with winter clearance prices at such outstanding independent shops and boutiques as these:

Best Colorado Deals: Resolutions to Buying Locally This New Year

Janet Simons

Janet Simons, author of the Colorado Smart Shopper, blogger of Best Colorado Deals, and veteran Rocky Mountain News shopping columnist discusses her New Year's resolutions to integrate more local shopping into her life. Exerpt taken from the BestColoradoDeals.com newsletter, a publication dedicated to independent shoppers and retailers.

 

Local shopping is hot

I entered the phrase “2010 trends buy local” into Google, and got back 9,120,000 results, a pretty good indication that buying local is going to be a pretty big deal in the coming year, and probably well beyond.

Money is tight, though, and it can be hard to pay even a few more cents for a product purchased from a locally based retailer instead of a national chain. Multiplied by thousands of transactions, however, those few cents can make the difference between survival and failure for the local businesses that keep our neighborhoods and state economically strong. So I’m making my resolutions for the coming year public this year, in the hope that they might catch on.  

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