For Consumers: The Best Monterey Peninsula Businesses (and the Worst)

The Best (and worst) Monterey Peninsula Businesses

A business only gets on this list if —

1. I have had direct personal experience with them, and
2. They have provided exceptional service, reliably – with no bad experiences.

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 Team (Pacific Grove and Monterey)
Costco – (Sand City)
Carmel Tuesday Farmer’s Market – Best Carrots 

Restaurants :

Tillie Gorts (Pacific Grove)
La Playa (for lunch) (Carmel)
Passionfish (Pacific Grove)
Papa Chanos (Monterey) 646-9587
China Gourmet (Carmel- sadly, closed in 2012)

Office / Camera Equipment :

Staples (Seaside – excellent customer service)
Costco (Sand City – best place to get a camera)

Batteries, Home

Dollar Tree (Seaside, Fremont St)

Gasoline :

Station at Corner of David and Hawthorne (Monterey)
Station at Costco – (Sand City)

Car Repair :

Advantage Auto – (Monterey) 372-4188
Hans Auto Repair – (Sand City) 831-583-9820

Smog Test :

Jack Fox Auto Repair 394-3994

Tires :

Goodyear (Seaside) 899 4900 No longer recommended as they refused to take care of a tire defect.

House Cleaning and Property Maintenance :

Compulsive Cleaning and Care-Taking 915-6397
C.K. Services 224-9899

Plumbing:

Middlebrook Plumbing, Pacific Grove

Electrical Work:

Houston Electrics, 899 5716

Building Materials :

Hayward Lumber (Pacific Grove)
M&S (Monterey)

Hardware :

ACE Hardware (on Pacific Grove’s Forest Hill near Trader Joe’s)

Delivery:

Fed-Ex

Retirement Community:

Canterbury Woods (Pacific Grove) (I’ve had family members and friends live here, Very happily.)

Jig Saw Puzzles 🙂

I’m Puzzled (Pacific Grove) Update: Sadly so its wonderful owner, Mary, closed this business closed in 2012 so she could retire.Brilliantly, she reopened it in about 2014.

Shoes :

Feet R Us (Seaside) Sadly closed in 2012

Bike Shops :

None !

I do not list medical or financial businesses.
You might note no businesses are listed for Bike Shops, Clothing Stores, and a few other categories – because I can’t find any locally that provide reliable exceptional service.

Then other businesses, even those owned by friends, (e.g. Massage, Roofers, Psychologists, Pet stores and services) are absent ONLY because I have not yet needed or used their services.

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Excellent Closed 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)

Sadly, both wonderful banks were gobbled up by corporadoes and turned awful.

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Bad Actors: Businesses I will never again deal with:

Morgan Stanley / Dean Witter (Monterey – supremely arrogant assholes. it is no surprise to me that they were fined more than $10 billion for their role in Mortgage mess and co-mingling client funds. They are still facing criminal charges.)
Pebble Beach Company – Our leading local Eco-Frauds. Still trying to get you to believe that their destruction
Bank of America (Do you need to ask?)
Wells Fargo Bank (systematic false charges = theft)
Dr. Charlie Bates (Lost or destroyed all our family medical records and still refuses to return our calls as of 2016.)
Bay Photo Lab (New Monterey)
Home Despot
Jay Leno TV show advertisers (Mean remarks and mean guests! Johnny Carson never once said a mean thing in his decades on the show)
Honda of Monterey (Thankfully closed. )

Bad Actors: Monopolies I will never again deal with when there is any alternative:

ATT Phone company
PG$E Electric and Gas (Literally killed 14 people in San Bruno)
California-American Water Company (Cal-Am)
US Post Office

* Note – While some of these businesses are run by or employ friends, I have not received any remuneration or discounts that are not available to you — for any of these recommendations. And sadly, while there are other likely fabulous businesses – I just have never had personal experience with them.