The Best (and worst) Monterey Peninsula Businesses
A business only gets on this list if —
1. Friends like you have asked me for a recommendation,
2. I have had direct personal experience with them,
3. They have provided reliable exceptional service – with no bad experiences.4. Or they have done something seriously terrible in Consumer Fraud or done significant harm to our community.
These local businesses prove that there are solid reasons for buying some services and products locally and not over the internet / web. It is notable that several of these excellent businesses are large corporations – both privately and publicly owned.
Food :
Trader Joe’s – Fabulous Teams (Pacific Grove and Monterey)
Costco – (Sand City)
Restaurants :
Tillie Gorts (Pacific Grove)
La Playa (for lunch) (Carmel)
Passionfish (Pacific Grove)
Papa Chanos (Monterey)
Office / Camera Equipment :
* Staples (Seaside)
Costco (Sand City)
Gasoline :
Station at Corner of David and Hawthorne (Monterey)
Station at Costco – (Sand City)Quick Stop (?) In Monterey on Fremont
Car Repair :
Advantage Auto – Randy Draper (Monterey)
Hans Auto Repair – Mike and Tracy Brooks (Sand City)
Smog Test :
Jack Fox Auto Repair
House Cleaning and Maintenance:
Compulsive Cleaning and Property Maintenance
C.K. Services
Plumbing:
Jeff Middlebrook Plumbing
Electrical Work:
Lance Houston Electrics
General Handyman
CK Services (Chris Kuhlken)
Building Materials :
Hayward Lumber (Pacific Grove)
M&S (Monterey)
Hardware :
ACE Hardware (Pacific Grove’s Forest Hill)
Delivery:
Fed-Ex
Retirement Community:
Canterbury Woods (Pacific Grove) (I’ve had family members and friends live very happily there.) To my amazement, they always solved problems to MY satisfaction. Simply First Class management. (And probably the best buffet on our Peninsula !)
Jig Saw Puzzles 🙂
I’m Puzzled – Mary Norton (Pacific Grove)
Shoes :
Feet are US (Seaside)
=======
Closed Excellent Businesses:
The Thunderbird – Bookstore and Restaurant – May Waldroup (Carmel valley mouth)
Triples Restaurant – Tommy Tucker, (Monterey)
Coco Le Fleur Restaurant – Madame and Paola Berthoin (Carmel Valley)
Bruised Reed – Restaurant (Monterey)
Beau Thai Restaurant – David Walton (Cannery Row)Eureka Federal Savings Bank – Bill Sosic, Manager (Pacific Grove)
San Francisco Federal Savings Bank (Carmel)
=======
Bad Actors: Businesses I will never again deal with:
Morgan Stanley / Dean Witter (Monterey)
Bay Photo Lab (New Monterey)
Pebble Beach Company
Dr. Charlie Bates – Bate LOST all our family medical records; ALL of them.Bank of America
Wells Fargo Bank
Rocky Point Restaurant
Home Despot
Jay Leno TV show (Mean remarks and mean guests! Johnny Carson never said a mean thing in his decades on the show)
Bad Actors: Businesses I will never again deal with when there is any alternative:
ATT Phone company – Simply Non-Stop Hideous “service”
PG$E Electric and Gas:
California-American Water Company (Cal-Am)
US Post Office
* Note – While some of these businesses are run by friends of mine, I have not taken or received any remuneration for any of these recommendations.