Lucky Stop Liquor Getting The Boot Off Abbot Kinney

Update 5/9/18:

The new owner, Jesse, contacted me to let me know that Lucky Stop will remain a liquor/convenience store ... they will remain open while a remodel happens after they take over on May 16th. They say they will remain affordable, have new products, and will be offering Door Dash delivery. I guess if they're willing to pay the new outrageous rent that pushed our old friends out, we can be willing to give them a chance in the neighborhood. Best of luck!


Well, I stopped in to see my friends at Lucky Stop Liquor on Abbot Kinney today, and found out that the bad news rumor is true. They are closing for good in a couple of weeks. The spot that everyone on the block goes to for their various daily items will be no longer, because the owner thinks that they should jack up the rent from $15,000 a month to $30,000. They already forced the store to cut itself in half a few years ago to create the Will Leather store (when their rent already went up from $7,000 for the whole big space to $15,000 for half the space), and now they're just getting the total boot.

In yet another example of complete greed and no bigger picture, Abbot Kinney is getting less and less cool every day. It's getting to where only corporate retailers are able to pay this highway robbery called these outrageous rents. I've been friends with Lucky Stop's Justin Cho for a long time, and he could only laugh about it today. Because it's laughable - if it also weren't so awful and downright sinister.

Cho thinks it might still be a liquor store, but a fancy one, if some chump wants to pay that much for that little. We both looked across the street at Abbot's Habit still sitting there empty after almost a year since closing, and just shook our heads at the greed and shameless money grab that continues to go down in our community. That is, in fact, killing our community.

Hey, Landlords ... how about have a heart? How about getting the fact - once again - that people do not come to Venice to see the same old chain stores everywhere else in the world has. They come to see unique, cool things, in one of the most unique and cool places on Earth ... for now. Stop trying to homogenize everything ... how much money does any one person need, anyway? You can't take it with you. When no one bothers to come to Venice anymore because it's the same as every other generic town, then who is going to pay your jacked up rents? Have some vision.

I'm disgusted. And I'm really going to miss Cho and Company there on the block. Dumb.

Venice Is Not For Sale - Only It Is.

I was walking down the street this morning when I came upon this little tag on the sidewalk ... "Venice is not for sale". I have to figure it must be old ... because at this point in time, Venice is for sure for sale.

Not the SPIRIT of Venice, of course, but Venice property has been so pimped out and sold, it's nearly unrecognizable if you haven't been here in a while. It's so disheartening. For the first time since I moved here over 20 years ago, I'm thinking I'm not as sure that this is the place for me anymore. I mean, I LOVE VENICE, as everyone knows ... but what I love so much seems to be in ever increasing danger of disappearing completely.

The new people moving in don't get it at all. You can tell just by the things that they complain about that they have no idea what Venice was ever truly like. The fact that Adidas and Smashbox - massive chains that were never tolerated in this town - both just opened for business on Abbot Kinney. Thi should really tell you all you need to know. That Venice, like America itself, has been bought and sold to the highest bidders. It's disgusting, and sad, and I'm getting weary of the battle. I can't stand walking around listening to these entitled, self-centered jerks acting like they own the world, and thinking they can take over our little beach-side Community. It's heartbreaking.

The future is wide open, and it is what we make it. I have no idea what's next, but I'm no longer as sure that whatever happens will be in Venice. I'd hate to be one to throw in the towel on a place in the world that is downright sacred to me, but the greed sickens me on the daily.

It's true that those magical qualities that originally defined Venice cannot be bought and sold ... but you have to still be able to feel them to want to be here, and that's getting harder and harder every day.

We shall see.