Fun day off and made new friends.

Had a rare day off and spent a part of it at the MoreBeer retail location in Los Altos, CA -- technically the More Flavor ( wine ) location.

I went to gather the materials for a brew day on Saturday and I did not know what to expect. I have seen both retail perfect sterile LHBS stores and some that you need to kick the trash out of the way to get to the merchandise...
This was a mix of both.. lots of product in a small space, but well organized.

The store is fully self - serve, I scooped my own grains, inspected and weighed them then ran them through the mill. After bagging and tagging, I then grabbed hops and yeast out of the reach in refrigerators and loaded everything into a bag to take to the register...

The honor system rocks and I saved nearly $20 dollars plus shipping on a kit that I could have ordered online elsewhere for 50 plus tax plus shipping.
The grain quality was very good BTW. Additionally, they carry Wyeast products at this location which are not offered online. SWEET!
The wine yeast selection is huge if you are into wine making.

The best part was talking to the guy that had never brewed before and helping him choose an extract kit and supplies. A holiday wheat is what I built for him, based around one of the stock B3 kits.
He promises to let me know how it turns out. I think he will do fine.

The manager invited me to bring some beers to sample on Oct. 22nd. They are having a little brewfest there. I am still amazed at the friendliness of the staff. They treated me like I owned the place. It was very cool and laid back.
There are at least five homebrew/winemaking stores within 20-30 minutes of my home. This is my new favorite hands down.

Sounds like a pretty well run place. I have had good experiences with their online business. I would love a place like that here.

The retail location in Riverside is pretty cool too. You can walk in, give 'em a list and they'll get everything in the list for you. Great bunch of guys there - even the customers.

I go to both the Los Altos and Concord locations.

Los Altos has a great staff. Phil and Steve are very helpful nice guys, only once have I walked in there and not ended up just spending 15 minutes talking to them

There are at least five homebrew/winemaking stores within 20-30 minutes of my home.

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I'm so jealous....

Both of the homebrew supply places near me sound like the one you just described. Self-serve (mostly), organized, smallish, and with really chill people who love to talk about beer. It's a good hobby!

I wish the LHBS around here was like that . The people that own the one i go to are into wine making more than brewing and the other one is farther away but I like that one more but hate driving really far. At least the people are friendly at the one I go to. Shopping online is just convienent for me but will make a couple trips to the LHBS every now and then