Best clothing store: Rue 21

It is Friday night. I have nothing to wear, but I… Best clothing store: Rue 21

It is Friday night. I have nothing to wear, but I know of a place that sells flashy, frilly shirts, skirts with slits up the sides and jeans that snuggle up to my skin. Whoo hoo! Rue 21, centrally located on Forbes Avenue, ranks high up there, and is like the Banana Republic of Oakland. The prices are reasonable, the clothes are stylish and colorful, and the sizes cover a broad range, so anyone can shop at Rue 21 without hesitation. There are options for both men and women, and the styles are up-to-date and trendy. Currently, Rue 21 is having a sale, and there are remaining summer items for $2 and fall buys under $20. You can also visit the Rue 21 Web site at www.rue21.com.

– Ashley Ruszkowski, staff writer

Best cell phone vendor: Cricket

Wouldn’t it be terrible if a robber shot your girlfriend in the chest and a helpful bystander wanted to use your cell phone to call 911 – and you didn’t have any minutes left? What a tragedy!

You can avoid such a terrible – and legally embarrassing – situation. You don’t ever have to run out of minutes. Never be inconvenienced by your cell phone plan again – unless you have the pesky habit of ever leaving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

The cell phone plan of choice among Pitt students is Cricket. With Cricket, you get unlimited local minutes. If you go for the text option, you get unlimited text messaging, too.

You don’t need to sign a contract or undergo a nasty credit check. There’s nothing to hide from with Cricket. You can pay your bill online or over the phone. You can even walk into a convenient cash payment center and plunk down rolls of nickels!

– Melissa Meinzer, Opinions Editor

Best place to buy CDs: CD Warehouse

So the RIAA is breathing down your neck. You’ve downloaded a small record store’s worth of music, and the walls are closing in. Subpoenas are coming fast and furious, and you might be next. What to do?

Stop the downloading without dropping your vehement anti-recording industry stance by picking up your music at CD Warehouse.

With the prices of new albums reaching astronomical amounts, us poor college students are being squeezed out of the market. And now, with the threat of costly legal action, we can’t get our music for free anymore. Used CD stores like CD Warehouse offer the best solution.

By buying your music from CD Warehouse, you’re getting albums that are slightly used, at a fraction of the cost of buying them new. And because someone has already purchased the disc, the recording industry isn’t getting your hard-earned dollar. Plus, CD Warehouse carries albums that a chain record store, like

Best Buy, might not have.

Maybe someday in the future, new albums will cost a more reasonable amount. But in the meantime, if you can’t download, frequent CD Warehouse. It’s cheap, easy, and the next best way to stick it to the man – err, the RIAA.

– Dante A. Ciampaglia, Assistant A’E Editor

Best video rental store: Blockbuster

So it’s the end of a long week, you’ve been working too hard, and now it’s time to unwind with your significant other. Time to hit the bars and get schlobberknockered, right?

Better idea: Make it a Blockbuster night.

“What?” you say. “It’s the height of my life socially, and I’m going to curl up with a bottle of wine and a movie?”

Well, yeah.

You might think, at the beginning of the night, that getting trashed is the best way to relax and recover, but you won’t the next morning.

Alternative scenario: you and your honey go to Blockbuster, grab a flick you’ve been wanting to see, and do the aforementioned curling with the aforementioned bottle of wine. The next morning, you are refreshed, feeling rested, a whole lot less broke than you would be otherwise, and you’ve actually seen your boy/girlfriend and had quality time with them, not just looked at them through beer goggles you don’t need.

Blockbuster: the video rental store of love.

– Greg Heller-LaBelle, Editor in Chief

Best textbook seller: GotUsed

When dealing with boyfriends, project partners and salespeople, no one really wants to be used.

But when it comes to textbooks, getting used is just fine with you.

GotUsed, the renamed and relocated bookstore formerly known as The College Store, is your favorite place to find textbooks, both old and new. With a large collection of used books and prices in which you can revel, GotUsed can help you launch an illustrious semester of studying – or just carrying around books that you know you should be reading.

Some of you just head down Forbes Avenue to GotUsed, take care of business, and head home. Others of you check out other textbook vendors’ prices and squeal with delight at your cleverness when you confirm that you have, in fact, saved $3.50 on a $120 biology text that you never intend to open. Whatever your shopping – or studying – style, you can appreciate the fine deals, friendly service and comfortable atmosphere at GotUsed Bookstore.

– J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor

Best florist: Gidas

Whether it be a hot pink Gerber daisy to help a best friend get over a cheating boyfriend or a dozen red roses from that same cheating boyfriend, Gidas Florist has the sunflower or stargazer lily you need. Their convenient location on campus and embellished window displays during the holidays keep us going back for that sweet smell of lilac. Or is it that we keep returning to escape the rank smell of moldy pizza boxes and crusty beer cans that pollutes Oakland?

The flower shop is surely a change of scent from the aromas that fill your nose on your way to class. It is definitely a change of atmosphere from the urban campus found in the heart of Oakland.

From a rose for our Valentine sweetheart – hopefully not from that same boyfriend who is cheating on you with your best friend, to a poinsettia during holiday shopping, Gidas Florist has our favorite flower for every occasion.

– Ashley McGuire, staff writer

Best piercing and tattoo shop: Inka Dinka Doo and Hot Rod Body Piercing Co.

When getting pierced or tattooed, one must make sure to painstakingly research the options for where to go. Every piercing shop and tattoo parlor is different – and in this case, cheaper is never better. In Oakland, the ones that stands above them all are Inka Dinka Doo Tattoo and Hot Rod Body Piercing Co.

Inka Dinka Doo is on the bottom of the building on Oakland Avenue, while Hot Rod rests above. Both are meticulously clean, and the guys who modify your bodies really know what they are doing. Hot Rod has a reputation for their piercings rarely getting infected.

Inka Dinka Doo’s tattoo artists are incredibly talented, inking up brave souls and scaredy cats alike with intricately detailed designs.

So if you are going to alter your appearance, at least you can tell the ‘rents that you did it at the best places Oakland has to offer.

– Katie Mavrich, A’E Editor

Best drug store and pharmacy: CVS

The walk past McKee Place may seem daunting, and the weak students will fall by the wayside. But for those strong, dedicated people who make the grueling trek to CVS on Forbes Avenue, a great reward awaits.

CVS is the uber-drug store of Oakland drug stores. Its multitudinous aisles offer gleaming packages of food, vitamins, medication, personal care items and household items. With several aisles dedicated solely to food, CVS can get you through an extra week when the grocery store doesn’t stand as an option in your immediate future. The pleasing carpeting will put a comforting bounce in your step as you peruse the store for all your drug store and pharmacy needs.

Sure, the walk will seem a little long when several other drug stores tempt you by their closer proximity to campus. But if you persevere in your quest for a vast haven of drug store items, your efforts will be rewarded.

– J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor

Best place to get film developed: CVS

So you need film developed really fast with digital quality thrown in to impress the friends. Well, then the CVS Photo Center on Forbes Avenue is the place to go. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day of the week, they have begun using a Noritsu QSS-3011 Digital Lab System that, according to CVS employee Drew McLaren, can process 30 to 40 rolls of digital-quality film in an hour instead of the five to 10 roll capacity of past lab machines.

In addition to any film you get developed, for $4.99 more, you can get a Kodak picture CD to hold the equivalent of three rolls worth of 35mm photos. You can also bring in your own CD, insert it into the Kodak Picture Maker Station, and print out 4-inch-by-6-inch prints on it for 29 cents apiece. Lose the negatives to your favorite pictures? No problem. Just scan in a photograph at another station and transfer the equivalent of three 4-by-6 photos to a CD for $6.99. For those about to travel abroad, passport photos are $7.99 for a set of 16 and, according to McLaren, there is always at least one camera on sale.

– Christian Niedan, staff writer

Best vintage clothing store: Avalon

Once a specialty clothing shop, now a vintage clothing store, Avalon Exchange has become every ’60s and ’70s fashion guru’s favorite place to shop for original items.

It’s not just the clothing and accessories priced more within a college student’s budget or the fact that Avalon carries more originals than ever before for both the guys and the gals; many shop at Avalon Exchange for its expressiveness and uniqueness. More trendier than a thrift shop – now that thrift shops’ idea of vintage clothing are baseball T-shirts from 1999 – shoppers will find exactly what they’re looking for to stand out among the Abercrombie ‘ Fitch models walking on Pitt’s campus. No more brand names, no more T’s your little brother and his basketball team wore from their Joe’s Pizza Shop sponsor last year.

Yes to the’ 80s bangles and blouses your mother/father once wore. Yes to the originality found at Avalon Exchange, something hard to come across in this Prada world.

– Ashley McGuire, staff writer

Best grocery store: Giant Eagle

It’s no surprise this place won; it’s the only supermarket near Oakland. But regardless, you gotta love Giant Eagle. When you need to stock up on red Dixie cups for Friday night’s beer pong tourney, or when you have a dollar to blow on eight packs of ramen noodles, “The Eagle” is the place for you.

When you’re in dire need of toilet bowl cleaner because you just found out the ‘rents are visiting this weekend, there’s one important decision to make: which Eagle do you want to hit up? With so many near Oakland, the choice can be a difficult one to make. However, it’s probably easiest to head to the closest Eagle to campus, the infamous “Dirty Bird” at Centre Avenue and Craig Street in North Oakland.

And don’t forget your Giant Eagle Advantage Card – that little orange and blue sliver of plastic that magically whisks cents off your grocery bill. Technology is wonderful.

– Ben Greiner, staff writer