Goods and Services: Rent Money >>

• Best Hardware Store
  Strasser Hardware
  Strasser Hardware has been selling hammers, nails and potbellied stoves since 1917, even before the surrounding city of Rosedale was annexed to Kansas City, Kansas. After 88 years, the two-story Strasser's still sells hammers, nails and potbellied stoves, along with plenty of other vitally... More >>
• Best Dollar Store
  Dollar Tree
  Some dollar stores charge more than $1 for some items. To us, this is a betrayal. Everything at a dollar store should cost $1, no more and no less. Dollar Tree, which stocks a wide array of housewares, food and office supplies, shares our philosophy. The health-and-beauty and party supply aisles... More >>
• Best Pet Store (1 Comment)
  Waldo Pets
  Waldo Pets is more wildlife laboratory than pet store, with its hundreds of furry and finned creatures, squawking birds and the constant, hypnotic bubbling of endless aquariums. It's a place where parents bring their kids for entertainment, such as a look at the "shark pit," a 2,500-gallon,... More >>
• Best Drug Store (1 Comment)
  The Corner Pharmacy
  The only thing harder to find these days than an independently owned neighborhood pharmacy is an independently owned pharmacy with a soda fountain. Kansas City once had dozens of them, until the big chain drugstores flexed their retail muscle. But in Leavenworth, pharmacist Ron Booth sticks to... More >>
• Best Health Food Store
  Nature's Pantry
  These days, it seems most health food stores are either overpriced chains or hole-in-the-wall retailers where the tiny cooler is crammed with just a few containers of organic yogurt and a carton of sad-looking free-range eggs. What's so cool about Nature's Pantry is that it's locally owned --... More >>
• Best Liquor Store
  Joe's Corner Liquor Store
  The first time we ever walked into Joe's Corner Liquor, there was a cute boy working the counter, and he was reading the Pitch. Now we rarely go anywhere else. There's a great wine selection and there are frequent specials on beer, and though it's kind of a pain in the ass that the place doesn't... More >>
• Best Car Wash
  Simoniz Car Wash
  Washing cars sucks. The five-minutes-for-$1.25 always sounds like a great deal until we actually start; three minutes go by and the wheels aren't even wet yet. Spotting is inevitable, waxing is a joke -- and don't even get us started on the vacuums. So we decided it was actually more economical... More >>
• Best Cheap Massage
  Heritage College
  The massages at Heritage College alleviate stress on two levels: physically and economically. They soothe the muscles with relaxing rubdowns (Swedish) or firm kneading (deep tissue) and address swollen and knotted areas (trigger points), all for just $25 an hour. As a certification school for... More >>
• Best Cheap Pedicure
  Country Club Nails
  Nail salons sometimes make us shudder with their tendency to reek like a hot-chemical EPA violation. So it was surprising to walk into Country Club Nails on the Plaza and hear the gentle sounds of little fountains (instead of being assaulted by the scream of nail dryers) and to smell air fresher... More >>
• Best Cheap Manicure
  Lynn Nail
  For the most part, a cheap manicure is a cheap manicure. But there are subtle differences. Like the warm-up mitts the nail technicians offer after they squirt that jelly like substance into your plastic gloves. That's a good sign. And if they use real, true, clear topcoat -- not that weird,... More >>
• Best Laundromat
  Westport Laundry
  If Westport Laundry had no claim to fame greater than Mighty Margaret -- a huge washer wearing a sign dubbing her the biggest washing machine in Westport -- that would surely be enough to earn the locale high marks. But it has so much more than that. Offering several different kinds of washers... More >>
• Best Dry Cleaner (1 Comment)
  Fifth Avenue Cleaners
  We'll be honest: When we determined Fifth Avenue Cleaners to be the best dry cleaner in town, price was a big consideration. It's not as if we ever spilled red wine on our mother's white-suede mini-suit, á la Cindy Mancini in Can't Buy Me Love; we're just trying to get last night's bar... More >>
• Best Tailor
  Rydell's
  It's one thing to spend more than $100 on jeans. It's another to find out that Citizens of Humanity cuts for supermodels' legs, leaving lowly civilians like us with dragging hems. We don't trust our home-ec skills to leave anything but a jagged, obvious line on that pricey denim. Which is why we... More >>
• Best Shoe Store
  DSW
  Who doesn't love DSW? Yeah, it's a chain, but what other store has an orgy of shoes at prices so affordable, you can leave with three or four shoeboxes and still eat that week? We love it because it has a good mix of trendy and classic styles. DSW stores get new shipments weekly, so the... More >>
• Best Shoe Repair
  Renner's Boots & Shoes
  One of our friends, a Kansas Citian who now calls the nation's capital home, has her priorities straight. Number one on the list? Shoes. So we take her advice seriously when it comes to shoe repair. Her joint of choice isn't in D.C., though; it's here in the humble heartland, in a little shop... More >>
• Best Thrift Store (1 Comment)
  Maj-R Thrift
  One crisp October afternoon in 2003, when we spied a gorgeous, unblemished mink stole with a loopy monogram sewn into its lining, we knew we'd found our new favorite thrift store. Since that day, Maj-R Thrift has supplied us with such varied purchases as chain-mail handbags (two -- silver and... More >>
• Best PawnShop
  Mission Pawn/House of Stuart
  Frank Decaro looks like a kid as he takes out the Swedish foghorn and leans on its handle, creating a bassy moan. He says he's tempted to press harder to make the windows rattle, but there are too many customers around. Elsewhere in the Mission Pawn/House of Stuart are a 1927 slot machine, two... More >>
• Best Bookstore
  The Raven Bookstore
  Serving downtown Lawrence for 18 years, the Raven Bookstore specializes in mystery and suspense titles. A recent visit turned up 20 different books by Jim Thompson, the hard-boiled writer of The Grifters. The store also devotes significant space to books of regional interest. Abolitionist John... More >>
• Best Used Bookstore
  Spivey's
  Yes, Spivey's carries a lot of books. Fans of American satirist Thomas Berger, for instance, can pull nine different titles from the shelf in the upstairs room. But Spivey's is more than just the best place to score a hardcover version of Norman Mailer's Advertisements for Myself. The store also... More >>
• Best Video/DVD Store
  Kansas City Library, Central Branch
  An advertising campaign for a national chain of video-rental stores heralds the "end of late fees." How about the end of fees, period? For $25 -- the price of a basic membership -- the Kansas City Library allows movie lovers to check out one feature film for three days at no charge. (A $40... More >>
• Best Used Vinyl/CD Store, Kansas City
  Recycled Sounds
  Every good live-music scene needs a hip record store at its heart, and Recycled Sounds helps keep the local pulse throbbing. Anne Winter has kept her shop open for 17 years and has always been a strong supporter of KC music, whether by stocking and recommending homespun albums by area artists... More >>
• Best Used Vinyl/CD Store, Lawrence
  Love Garden
  When the Lawrence hipsters run out of cash, Love Garden is where they sell their stash. And we reap the rewards. The bins of newly arrived CDs and LPs are a buffet of the obscure, the classic and the all-around good. The love in the name is no arbitrary adjective, and neither is the garden --... More >>
• Best Used Bike Shop
  Acme Bicycle Company
  Christi Lynne and Sarah Gibson, the women who own and operate Acme Bicycle Company (formerly Old Town Cycling of Lenexa) don't just sell bikes -- they deal in "urban transportation." The interior of this East Crossroads workshop is a cycle-obsessed mad-scientist's laboratory, stocked with fully... More >>
• Best Bike Shop
  The Trek Store
  The Trek Store rules because it's stocked for gearheads but staffed by men and women who can translate tech-speak into lay terms. "The majority of our customers are everyday guys who want to ride a bike, and that's who works here," says Stacey Hallman, the store's manager. These are the same... More >>
• Best Mall
  Town Center Plaza
  Since opening in 1996, Town Center has become an example of the newest trend in one-stop shopping: the outdoor lifestyle complex. The 750,000-square-foot shopping district is laid out like an open-air marketplace dotted with the usual mall juggernauts. It also features independent couture... More >>