MAILBAG: Whole Foods’ site was the problem

The article on the opening of Henry’s implies a couple of things that are not true (“Henry’s opens up,” Oct. 3).

Stating that a health- oriented store like Henry’s was accepted, while two years ago Whole Foods was not, seems to say that Whole Foods was rejected because of the type of store it is. Stating that Whole Foods was too overwhelming for the quiet Rancho District is also misleading — I would hardly call Alameda Avenue quiet, especially during commuting hours. In fact, it is less and less quiet as the months go by.

What is true is that the proposed location for Whole Foods was the problem. Henry’s has precisely what Alameda and Main Street does not, namely a location that is easy to get in and out of partly because of the presence of a traffic light at a parking lot driveway. If the property now occupied by Henry’s had been available to Whole Foods, there would never have been a problem.

JOAN DEFATO

Burbank

Seeking inspiration in trying times

Before the advent of Kinko’s and big-box copy centers, such as Office Depot and Staples, does anyone remember the original while-you-wait copy store on Magnolia Boulevard where Karabel Dancewear is now? Yep, it was PIP Printing. PIP was a Burbank fixture that started in 1968. It was known as Postal Instant Press, then later shortened to “PIP.”

Long time Burbankers will remember the electric trains that ran around the inside of the shop near the ceiling, and for some it became a reason to go into the store in and of itself. I had the privilege of being hired by PIP in 1988, when I worked as an office manager and bookkeeper.

I always enjoyed the eclectic mix of customers from the neighbor on Screenland who came in for a single copy, to celebrities updating their resumes. We also saw all of the local television and movie studios come in as they set up each new production or needed copies of their latest movie script when all hope was still fresh that this could be the next blockbuster smash.

About six years ago, we had to downsize and moved from our high-visibility storefront on Magnolia to an industrial area over by the Empire Center in an effort to keep up with the ever-increasing number of copy shops that popped up in the last 20 years. We were managing to keep our head above water — until this current dreaded economic recession.