Hair Play is a basic salon in my neighbourhood (St. Clair W.) that I've been to a few times now. The place is fairly reasonable, price-wise (sadly, reasonable for a women's haircut these days is about $50) and while it offers services a-plenty, the space itself feels slightly bare bones. They only ever seem to have or two staff members working at any given time, so when a friend of mine called recently in the hopes of having us get side-by-side manicures, Hair Play couldn't accommodate us.

But so what? The shop is small and they don't have many people on staff. It's not a big deal. I'm not high maintenance about such things. Besides, I have straight, easy-to-style hair. All I really want out of a salon is a decent stylist who listens and doesn't accidentally cut one side of my hair and inch shorter than the other side. (It's happened.) Hair Play has that. I have no problem at all with the cut I just got, even though I ended up paying $65 (including tax and tip) for something that wasn't exactly special. I am fine with that. Hair cuts are expensive. That's life in the big city.

Here's the thing that DID bother me, though. I had a gift certificate from a friend - a birthday present. Sadly, said gift certificate had expired. I suppose it's my fault for not visiting the salon sooner, but I feel that gift certificates SHOULDN'T expire, and before today, I'd though that in Canada it was ILLEGAL for them to expire.

I was wrong. 

Hair Play refused to honour my expired gift certificate and it turns out, by law, they're allowed to do so. MOST gift certificates that have a set dollar value can't expire, as long as the business that issues them is still operational, but salon services are exempt from this law. Certificates for specific services and lessons are allowed to expire. I have no idea why.


I'm sorry, but I think this is totally sketchy and unethical. My friend gave the company money for a service they never rendered. She paid them for nothing. Hair Play is a small place, I'm sure they could have chosen to honour the certificate, expired or not, but they didn't. In addition, I realized that the date of expiration was less than a month after my friend bought the certificate to begin with. That's a really short period. I've never used a gift certificate immediately after receiving it. Never. 

So both my previous haircuts were fine, as was the manicure I got about a year ago. The place is close by, so I was intending to become a regular, long-time customer, but after this gift certificate thing, I don't think I'll be going back. You'd think a small business would give a shit about this, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Sigh.

Hair Play Salon & Spa
638 St.Clair Avenue W.
Toronto, ON M6C 1A9
(416) 656-6600

When I first moved out of the Annex and up to the Hillcrest/Cedarvale area, I lamented one loss more than any other -- the loss of my local video haunt (Queen Video). It was just down the street from my apartment. It had EVERYTHING. Unlike Blockbuster, it wasn't sterile and annoying. The staffers were nice, cute hipster boys. (One of them even found my wallet on the street once and returned it to me, intact and full of the cash I'd had.)

I was worried there'd be nothing to compare in my new 'hood.

Not so! Recently explorations led me to a good Queen Video substitute. It's called Q2 and it's perfect. In fact, it's almost exactly like Queen Video (in terms of selection), but it's cleaner and less packed with hipsters. Like QV, Q2 also had a few locations (one on Queen, one on Bloor, and one on St. Clair at Oakwood -- that's the one I go to).

Q2 Video supposedly specialized in new releases, Criterion, foreign films, docs, Canadiana, TV series and indie flicks, but that basically covers the spectrum, doesn't it? So far, with the exception of some really cheesy 90s movies I had a hankering for (like With Honours starring Brendan Fraser... for shame!) they've had everything I've ever wanted.

If you've wanted to sucker punch the khaki-clad clerk at your local Blockbuster, you should definitely check this place out. Q2 will restore your faith in film-watching humanity.

Oh, and they even have an online database, so you can search their holdings without leaving the house. Sweet.

Q2 Video
938 St. Clair Ave. W
Toronto, ON M6C 1C8
(416) 410-9342

I love Weebly.

I LOVE WEEBLY.

I want to shout it from the rooftops. Weebly is bar none, the very very best website creation tool I've ever used. It's incredibly simple, user-friendly, intuitive and fun. The help menus and tutorials are amazing (completely clear) and it does pretty much anything a small to mid-sized website creator could want.

Is it Drupal? No. Is it Wordpress? No. Is it complicated and fancy and annoying because you have to be a web designer or a tech genius to understand it? NO! It's Weebly and it's wonderful. And for my needs, it's perfect.

I've used other systems before, so I feel like I'm not the worst possible judge of this sort of thing. Weebly's template-based web design and hosting system is robust. In fact, I frankly, I don't know how they do it for free, but I'm glad they do.

My entire website was created using Weebly. I switched over from a different host and very different design about six months ago. I couldn't be happier. Want your site to have pictures? Blogs? Twitter feeds? A different header? A different layout? It's all possible. For nothing. A little elbow grease and you're up and running. It's truly amazing. (And have I mentioned free?)

I know I sound like a lunatic over here with my WeeblyWeeblyWeebly effusiveness, but the thing is, I'm that excited about it. Using Weebly has basically been the best consumer experience I've had in years.

Anyway. The bottom line is this: Weebly is so great, I regularly consider subscribing to their pay features. (Not because I need them, but because I'd love to give the Weebly team just a little extra financial support.)
 
That's how much I love Weebly.  I'd say that's saying a lot.

www.weebly.com

Spadina Flowers doesn't have everything. It's a little place, with decent floral-fridges and plenty of staples (roses, mixed bouquets, potted orchids, and nice hydrangeas and plants, but not too much else). My experience has been that you have to keep an open mind, because stock changes a lot. It obviously depends on a lot of factors: season, etc.

My only real problem with the place is that they carry pet fish - betta splendens, otherwise known as siamese fighting fish - in small, plastic cups. This is sad. As a pet owner, I don't like to see the fish stocked in this way. It's not a nice way for them to live. Furthermore, the practice of selling bettas in floral/plant arrangements (which was a fad a few years back) is problematic. Florists will tell you that these little guys will just eat the roots and stems sitting in the plant water (and they will) and need no other care, but this is both untrue and fairly cruel. They are carnivorous fish and need protein and real attention to be healthy. That said, sometimes I want to buy a betta as a gift and it's nice to know that Spadina Flowers has them. (And it's also nice to feel like I'm making a rescue of sorts.)

But back to the flowers: as I said, they're okay, and this is one of the few places to get them in the neighbourhood. On Valentine's Day, it was funny to see every second man carrying arrangements in the same wrapping. They'll make bouquets in any style you like, and if you want foil balloons and the like to go along with your flora, they'll oblige.

My advice is this: pop in if you need a hostess gift or something, but don't hold fast to your preconceived ideas of what you want. You'll probably find something you like, but it might not be what you envisioned in the first place.

It's a good option, but not a flower-lover's dream.

Spadina Flowers
360 Bloor Street W
Toronto, ON M5S 1X1
(416) 929-7144

*Photo by Kay Pat from Stock Xchng.

Merkur & Sister, otherwise known as AdWEAR and PromoSTUFF is a company that I've recently come to know through my work. They're a source and branding company for promotional items and clothing. (You know, clocks with company names engraved on them, hoodies emblazoned with the names of colleges, that sort of thing.) I've used them to get gift jackets to give to staff at a party, as well as to stock my office's online store with hoodies, branded laptop cases and bags, teeshirts, pens and the like.

It's a good company to work with. My sales rep, Michele, is nothing but cool and easy. She is totally understanding, even when my bosses get mental, forcing me to ask her for unreasonable things. We ordered water bottles branded with our logo, for example, and when the bottles came with the logo slightly off (2 mm lower on one side than the other) and my boss flipped, she sent a courier to pick them up and fix them immediately (and paid, of course) no questions asked. She also turned around the aforementioned jackets (embroidered with a logo) in less than a week, and is always always pleasant to me, no matter how many times I change my mind. It's a relief and I really appreciate her for it.

The downside of Merkur is that it might not be cheap. If you only want a small number of branded items, you pay nearly retail rates to get them. If you're looking to resell and make a profit, this isn't great news. Also, they use SO many source companies and there are so many catalogs to search through, it's easy to become overwhelmed. You really need to do the legwork yourself in regards to what you want because they're not great at making suggestions. At the same time, if you need 700 branded water bottles in mere days, they can do it.

Anyway, these guys are professional, which is why I recommend them. I know branded items aren't up everyone's ally, but if you need some promo products to help market your business, or if you need to please a pushy boss who wants something NOW NOW NOW (as mine tends to) this is a good company to work with.

Merkur & Sister Wholesale/Promo Stuff
801 Eglinton Ave W
Toronto, ON M5N 1E3
(416) 785-0777

*Photo by Adrian Gtz from Stock Xchng.

Video 99 was my local rental place growing up. That is, before the Blockbuster opened it's doors in the neighbourhood. It went a little downhill since, experiencing the expected droop in traffic one expects when the big boys move in, but nonetheless, it remains a pretty good store.

And it's closing. Sigh. Yep, April 30th is the day of reckoning. DVDs and other stock are already being sold. And I'm bummed.

Fact: there's nothing sleek about Video 99. When I was a kid, the place featured free popcorn from an old fashioned machine. No more. Now, it's just about rentals. No frills. Crowded aisles. The vibe is Mom and Pop.

Selection is good. They have a nice foreign film section, good deals on tv series, and because it's not a heavily frequented location, things tend to be in when you want them. The rental system is phone-number-based, which I like, and the clerks are polite. I much prefer renting here to the more impersonal and corporate Block. (It's cheaper, too.) They also have video games, but that's not by bag so I can't speak to their quality.

In case you're wondering, yes, Video 99 does stock porno. I've seen many a shopper slouch furtively toward the restricted section in my day. Others just stroll nonchalantly. I don't judge. Some stores take a so-called "moral" stance on this issue and refuse to stock adult films, but I say, give the people what they want. And if that's what YOU want, well, you have until the end of April

Video 99
666 St. Clair W.
Toronto, ON M6C 1B1
(416) 651-0002

*Photo by Helene gp from Stock Xchng.