The place has been around for about six months, but because I suck and don’t get around the neighborhood like I used to I only learned about Coco’s last week via a post on Boing Boing. The place is several levels of the awesome with used bikes lining the storefront sidewalk and inside everything for sale but the parakeets. Coco’s is definitely worth a visit.

The store’s owner, Mr. Jalopy himself, came out and showed me and my wife Susan some his two-wheeled collection — everything from a river rescue bike available for $1 that’s got more rust on it than paint, to an excellently maintained circa-1990s Specialized roadbike with an aluminum-lugged carbon fiber frame for $400 that looks sa-weet and probably sold for $2500-plus brand new.

“If this doesn’t sell quick, I’ll start riding it,” Mr. Jalopy told me.

Past the gumball saints machine by the door and inside you’ll find the west wall lined with slick looking line of agua pura dispenser stations, and the rest of the compact space loaded up with a grab bag of goodies, from old magazines to micro-sized anime characters to the store’s current hot item: Hamster’s Lunch snack ($4.45). Coco’s has had no trouble moving that strange stuff quick.

“We’ve sold 45 boxes in the last 24 hours,” he said.

I myself snatched up one of the few remaining boxes on the shelf and my wife Susan picked out a bell for her bike.

Coco’s Variety Store: 2427 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles, 90039 (map).

More pix at Coco’s and we go inside the box of
Hamster’s Lunch via my photoset on Flickr — and I’ve
been alerted by COOP that he has more photos of Coco’s
merch magic here on Flickr.

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