Businesses play musical chairs

Barbara Diamond

One longtime business is leaving Laguna Beach, and a couple others

have moved to new locations.

THE SKY IS FALLING

Chicken Little’s is closing its doors Aug. 31 after 33 years at

574 S. Coast Highway.

Ladislao Alvarez and Bert Borden opened the store in 1968 and

moved it to the highway location in 1970.

Alvarez has decided to call it quits after the death of his

partner, store manager Janet Cruciana said.

“The question everyone is asking is, where will they get their

‘naughty’ cards,” Cruciana said.

Chicken Little’s Emporium is known locally for its off-color cards

and gag gifts, which often came as a surprise to drop-in customers.

However, the biggest single draw the store had in its 33 years was

Beanie Babies, Cruciana said.

“They paid the rent for several years,” she said.

Regular customers will also miss Pookie, the Maltese that perched

on the counter at Chicken Little’s, greeting customers.

“Some people came in just to say hello to Pookie,” Cruciana said.

“She is little, and the counter is high, so we put her up there. She

belongs to neighbors, but she spends her days with us.”

Store employees always knew when it was 2:30 p.m.

“Our mailman, Alan Levy, is expected at 2:30, and Pookie would

listen for the cart’s wheels and start barking and wagging her tail

in anticipation,” Cruciana said. “She only barked at the mailman, and

she would go ballistic until he came and petted her.”

Chicken Little’s also featured “Hawaiiana” items, such as the

articulated hula dolls that attach to dashboards. The store often

presaged the fad du jour.

Inventory has pretty well been picked clean during the 50% -off

sale underway this week, Cruciana said.

Cruciana, a Laguna Beach resident, began working at the store as a

temporary Christmas clerk. She was promoted to manager in 1970.

Carolyn Sims Winfield, Cruciana’s childhood friend, and Maria

Williams were already employees when Cruciana got her “temporary”

job. Marie Frassati has worked at the store for 23 years.

Expect to see their faces in other stores. All four women have

found other jobs, but Pookie is still looking.

BE A SPORT

Sports World was a fixture on Broadway for 47 years.

Mitch Kruger, who bought the store from the Carey family in 1992,

moved it recently to 849 Laguna Canyon Frontage Road in the Festival

Center, next to the Sawdust Festival.

“The move was prompted by a rent increase,” said Kruger, who also

owns a store in Costa Mesa. “It more than doubled.”

Randy Buck, who manages the store, graduated from Laguna Beach

High School in 1979, a year after Kruger, whose children now attend

Top of the World Elementary School.

Buck and Kruger go back a long way.

“I played Little League on the Laguna Federal Team and we won the

city championship when I was 12,” Kruger said.

That was in 1973. The champs beat the Lions, the team for which

Buck played.

By that time, Sports World had been sponsoring a Little League

team for 16 years and it has continued to do.

Sports World stocks P.E. gear for Laguna Beach High School and

Thurston Middle School students and equipment for most sports other

than surfing and skateboarding.

“We do carry fins to sell to the junior lifeguards,” Kruger said.

“Swimming is big right now, and soccer is coming up.”

The store is offering an AYSO-approved package that includes a

ball, shoes, shin guards and a free gift.

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday; and 10

a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday; The store is closed Sunday. For more

information, call 494-2520.

THE EYES HAVE IT

Laguna Eyes has relocated to the Village Faire Shoppes at 1100 S.

Coast Highway, Suite 201.

Optometrist Bill Harrison has provided eye care and eye fashions

to Laguna for 27 years. His daughter Alicia joined her father in the

family business.

Together they offer family eye care, LASIK pre- and post-surgery

management, designer eyewear and contact lenses, sports vision

consulting and state of the art testing instruments.

Laguna Eyes is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday;

and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; It is closed Sunday.

The Harrisons’ offices were formerly in the Collection on South

Coast Highway, opposite the Hotel Laguna.

For more information, visit Laguna Eyes.com or call 497-1769.