GOODs & SERVICES

Best Optical Store

1. Empire Vision

2. DiNapoli

3. Lens Crafters

For those readers who are optically challenged, most of you prefer Empire Vision over the rest. Good selection, prices and care helped Empire beat out the competition.

Best Appliance Store

1. Sears

2. Best Buy

3. Green’s Appliance Direct

We wonder if we’d actually meant best appliance whether there would have been a similarly close contest between laundry machines and digital cameras. (Note: Do not mix the two.)

Best Antiques

1. River Street, Troy

2. New Scotland Antiques

3. Madison Art & Antiques

We assume that River Street took this one on the idea that an entire street could easily knock off one puny little store.

Best Bookstore

1. Borders

2. Barnes & Noble

3. Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza

After a narrow loss last year, Borders pulls ahead with a strong lead over Barnes & Noble. The Book House continues to quietly bide its time, letting them wear each other down.

Best Newsstand

1. Coulson’s News Centers

2. Borders

3. Westmere News and Variety

Borders wept as Coulson’s ran rings around the competition in this category.

Best Internet Provider

1. Road Runner

2. AOL

3. Earthlink

Speed, speed, speed. Road Runner on top, with provider-of-something-sort-of-like-the-Internet AOL coming in a distant second.

Best Garden Store

1. Hewitt’s Garden Centers

2. Faddegon’s Nursery Inc.

3. Home Depot

The 40-year-old merchant (Hewitt’s) beat off a longstanding Latham plant-seller and an army of orange smocks to take this dubious honor.

Best Florist

1. Emil J. Nagengast Florist & Greenhouse

2. Lark Street Flower Market Inc.

3. Danker Florists

You don’t bring us flowers anymore—which is sad, because you obviously have an opinion on the subject. Actions speak louder than words, people.

Best Home Electronics

1. Best Buy

2. Hippo’s

3. Circuit City

“There just ain’t no buy like a best buy,” said my grand pappy. And that sucks for him because he was always too intimidated to Rascal his way into the belly of the consumer electronic behemoth. It was that agoraphobia that did him right in. But worse than that it kept him from getting that widescreen, flat-panel TV with built in beer holders he always wanted. I ain’t choked up or nothing though cause after he passed we sold that there Rascal, went to Best Buy and bought the biggest TV you ever did see.

Best Furniture

1. Taft Furniture Warehouse and Showroom

2. Old Brick Furniture Company

3. Raymour & Flanigan Furniture Inc.

For those of you who prefer to buy your furniture new rather than on Craigslist or at antiques shops, you choose Taft over the competition.

Best Pet Store

1. Petsmart Inc.

2. Petco

3. Benson’s Pet Center

In your face Petco, in your face! Petsmart took this one home with nearly double the votes. There will be no need to settle this one in the hamster cage obstacle course of doom.

Best Gift

1. Romeo’s Gifts Inc.

2. Tie: Hallmark, Wit’s End Giftique

Variety makes a gift store. And when our readers can’t decide whether we’re in the market for fine home décor, jewelry, or something to make their lovers blush when they open the package, they head to Romeo’s.

Best Wine & Liquor

1. All Star Wine & Spirits

2. Exit 9 Wine & Liquor

3. Capital Wine & Spirits

We think that All Star’s selection is just unbelievable. And you guys agree with us.

Best Vintage

1. Salvation Army

2 Tie: Special FX, Last Vestige

Sally’s may be the only one left standing this time next year: Runner-up Special FX recently (and sadly, we might add) closed their doors, and Last Vestige, as best as we can tell, sells records.

Best Women’s Clothing

1. Macy’s

2. Some Girls

3. H&M

You girls LOVE to shop. You know it, we know it, and now we know that you love to do most of your clothing shopping at Macy’s—where else?

Best Men’s Clothing

1. Macy’s

2. Spector’s

3. Cohoes

Another win for Macy’s in the clothing category. Seems like you men appreciate selection, style and reasonable prices just as much as your female shopping counterparts.

Best Children’s Clothing

1. Gap Kids/Baby Gap

2. Children’s Place

3. Tie: Target, Old Navy

Seriously, who can resist the wide eyes and pastel colors on those kids gracing the Baby Gap and Gap Kids windows?

Best Women’s Shoes

1. Saratoga Shoe Depot

2. DSW

3. Payless Shoe Source

The Saratoga Shoe Depot pulls ahead of the discount competition with flourish. Customer service, well-made shoes and great selection help the store remain ahead of the game.

Best Men’s Shoes

1. DSW

2. Saratoga Shoe Depot

3. Macy’s

Guys, you have spoken! DSW won by more than double the second-place holder. We understand: DSW spreads out its bounty across a warehouse-size room under fluorescent lighting. Very unintimidating for the easily intimidated shoe shopper.

Best Women’s Haircut

1. Jean Paul Salon

2. Rumors

3. Ania’s

Stuyvesant Plaza’s Jean Paul Salon is good at many things, haircuts being one of them. But ladies, honestly, who just gets a cut anymore? You trust Jean Paul with your color, updos and straightening treatments as well.

Best Men’s Haircut

1. Gregory’s

2. Rumours IV Men

3. Jean Paul

It seems all that screaming of “Get a haircut, you damn hippie!” we have been doing while driving down Central Avenue at 11 PM on Friday nights has paid off. You hippies are out trimming down those pinko locks more than ever. Problem is, you can’t seem to decide where to do it, as Gregory’s and Rumours come in at only one vote apart.

Best Sporting Goods Store

1. Dick’s

2. Sports Authority

3. Goldstock’s

Dick’s won this one by more than 200 votes. Need we say more?

Best Bike Shop

1. the Downtube

2. Plaine’s

3. Dick’s

The Downtube blew away the competition in the bike-shop category. The shop—small enough to facilitate one-on-one attention, but still big enough to carry an impressive array of bicycles, has captured the hearts of cyclists across the region.

Best Toy Store

1. Toys R Us

2. Kay Bee Toy Store

3. the Toy Maker

Jeffery the Giraffe saved my life. For the longest time I used to build my doll houses out of dollar bills and tooth picks. Then one day some hoodlum saw my Barbie sitting under a money hut and tried to take them. Out of nowhere that gallant giraffe bounded around the corner yelling his big giraffe yell. The nasty crook went running. Then Jeffrey took me down to the local Toys R Us and showed me how to trade Ben Franklins for Barbies. I Love you Jeffery!

Best Video Rental

1. Hollywood Video

2. Blockbuster

3. NetFlix

We don’t go around telling everyone this but we have a psychological disorder that prevents us from ever returning a video on time. Video rentals just make such good coasters, you know? Thankfully Hollywood Video has enough locations strategically placed around the area so that we might never actually have to pay off those late fees. Judging by the votes you guys know about that sweet deal too. Don’t worry we’re not telling.

Best Tattoo

1. Lark Street Tattoo Shop

2. Spaulding’s

3. Albany Tattoo

T-Bone and company have this one locked up, as Lark Street Tattoo Shop walked away with twice as many votes as the two closest runners-up combined. Perhaps this was due to reader confusion: There are more than one Spaulding shops in the Capital Region, operated by more than one Spaulding. Hit us with the specifics next time, yo.

Best Cellular Service

1. Verizon

2. Cingular

3. Sprint

If one more phone sales rep walks up to us in the mall and asks what kind of phone we have we are going to scream. The voting tells us when they walk up and ask you, you’re going to tell them Verizon.

Best Jeweler

1. Hannoush Jewelers

2. Northeastern Fine Jewelry

3. Frank Adams Jewelers

If any of you people saw the exposé about the diamond industry on 60 Minutes, you’d be ashamed of yourselves. Regardless, we see that the glimmer in your eyes are mere reflections of the sparkly items in Hannoush’s windows.

Best Day Spa

1. Kimberley’s

2. Jean Paul

3. Crystal Spa

It seems if you guys are going to the spa you are going to Kimberley’s. In fact Kimberley’s took 5 times as many votes as its closest challengers. We like to go to the spa. Really we think we do. If we went we think we’d like to go to Kimberley’s. I mean we haven’t been or anything. Not to any spa. You could help us. You could fix us. Would you take us precious? Would you pretty, pretty please take us?

Best MUSICAL INSTRUMENT STORE

1. Parkway

2. Drome Sound

3. Guitar Center

As a wise man named Dee once said: “Turn it down you say but all I got to say to you is/time and time again I say/No! No! No! No!/tell me not to play/Well, all I got to say to when you tell me not to play/I say No! No! No! No!/So, if you ask me why I like the way I play it/there’s only one thing I can say to you/I wanna rock! (Rock!) I wanna rock! (Rock!) I want to rock! (Rock!) I wanna rock! (Rock!)”

Best Farmer’s Market

1. Troy

2. Saratoga Springs

3. Empire State Plaza

The massive, venerable Troy’s farmer’s market won by three times the amount of votes that went to Saratoga’s. Perhaps Troy has found its own racetrack.

Best Produce

1. Price Chopper

2. Honest Weight Food Co-op

3. Hannaford

Many of you love that local, organic stuff at the co-op. If more of you fit in there at once, who knows what the voting would look like?

Best Place to Buy a Computer

1. Best Buy

2. Dell

3. Apple Store

This top three just does not work for us. Whenever we go into one of these fine establishments to get a computer there is always some big burly guy grabbing things out of our hands followed by screeching alarms and long rides in police cars. Oh. . . . This is a best place to buy a computer. Right, right.

Best Place to Service a Computer

1. Best Buy

2. Comp USA

3. the Apple Store

We never really thought we would have to service a computer. Of course we never thought we would have to service a horse, a goat or a badger either. Er, wait. . . . What we are trying to say here is: If shit breaks, it looks like you guys are bringing it to Best Buy.

Best Shopping Plaza

1. Stuyvesant Plaza

2. Mohawk Commons

3. Latham

Is it the clothes we can’t afford? Three whole bus stops to itself? The Book House? Its persistence in the shadow of Crossgates? Whatever it is, we love Stuyvesant Plaza a full 10 times more than whatever that No. 2 place is.

Best Shopping Mall

1. Crossgates

2. Colonie Center

3. Wilton

Don’t like reality much. Nope, not much at all, and Crossgates provides the perfect climate-controlled, consumer-friendly reality alternative. Friends keep trying to get us to watch that Dawn of the Dead flick. They keep mentioning something about it being a parable about materialism in a consumer society. To be honest we have no idea what shopping and zombies have to do with one another and we are not about to find out. See y’all at Hot Topic.

Best Shopping City

1. Saratoga Springs

2. Albany

3. New York City

Question: Do the New Yorkers who go to Saratoga to shop spend more money there than the Capital Region residents who go to New York to shop? Should we set up some sort of exchange program?

Best Outlet Shopping

1. Lee

2. Lake George

3. Woodbury Commons

What can we say? Lee has it all—location, reasonable prices, the best Gap that ever lived, and a very big food court to replenish the energy you expended on shopping till you dropped. And, Lee got almost double the votes the Lake George did.

Best Supermarket

1. Hannaford

2. Price Chopper

3. Honest Weight Food Co-op

A squeaker for the interloper chain, perhaps rewarding its diligent attempts to create a “natural foods” section. But the co-op stalwarts hold on, faithfully placing the little store it this Division I category.

Best Health Food Store

1. Honest Weight Food Co-op

2. GNC

3. Green Grocer

Folks? GNC doesn’t sell food. It sells pills.

Best Used Record Store

1. Last Vestige

2. Music Shack

3. Beat Shop

Last Vestige’s double-location assault put a hurting on its competitors as they took nearly eight times as many votes as their closest competitor. We have to say there is nothing like spending a couple hours with our fingers dancing over Last Vestiges vinyl selection. Some might call it a fetish. We like to call it a frugal compulsion.

Best New Record Store

1. FYE

2. Best Buy

3. Coconuts

Guys, guys! The answer was Music Shack. OK, OK, we’re not going to penalize you this time. We understand that it’s oh-so-tempting to pay $20 for a CD and be handed a mail-in rebate for $4.50. We’ll chalk it up to survey fatigue. As the vote stands now, FYE has smashed the competition getting double the votes of the more reasonably priced Best Buy.