Costco

Remember when gas stations were cool? In the decades after World War II, gas was cheap and operators competed on service. Every time a car rolled in, a bell would ring and uniformed pump jockeys dashed out to fill the tank, wash the windshield and check the oil level. Sagging tires got a whoosh of air. Station owners made profits from car repairs performed in their garages and especially from selling oil, which vehicles burned quickly by today's standards. Some owners tried to catch customers' eyes with futuristic-looking designs for their buildings like the Googie-style Unocal station in Beverly Hills from 1965 with a swooping white roof.

Kenny Chesney must have gotten word about the Malibu dress code: It's baseball caps, dude, not cowboy hats. What other possible explanation is there for the country music legend to have bought a house in the Carbon Canyon neighborhood for $7.4 million in February and then promptly re-listed it for sale at $7.95 million? The home, which was listed at $7.5 million when Chesney bought it a nanosecond ago, has expansive ocean views.

A shootout Sunday between armored car guards and gunmen, one armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, left one bystander dead and at least three people wounded after a botched robbery outside a Van Nuys Costco store teeming with shoppers, authorities said. Panic-stricken customers, many with children, dived for cover in the pandemonium. Bullets shattered car windows 100 yards away.

When Greg Chait won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award in New York City last month, the man behind the Elder Statesman line of ultra-luxury cashmere knits - think $5,525 blankets, $1,890 belted cardigan sweaters and $380 ski caps - was practically unknown outside the fashion industry. And he was only slightly better known within it. "That's because I don't talk unless I have something to say," Chait says, sitting behind the wooden table that doubles as a desk in his tiny West Hollywood office/atelier - the exact location of which he'd rather not divulge.

Another dollar retail chain is looking to cash in on California. One of the nation's largest chains of dollar retailers, Family Dollar Stores Inc., will open its first stores in the state Thursday, stepping into the home turf of rival 99 Cents Only Stores Inc. The four shops — located in Fontana, Riverside, Ontario and Rialto — are the first step in a major push into California by the North Carolina company, which plans to open up to...

Leah Brown was happy to oblige when her friend Kathy Russo asked for help in picking out a wedding dress. But she started having second thoughts when she found out where they would be shopping: Costco. "I said, 'Yo, what? Are you kidding me?' " Brown recalled. "Where are you going to try them on ? in the patio furniture section?" But Brown's doubts evaporated as she watched Los Angeles designer Kirstie Kelly and a team of bridal consultants fawn and fret over Russo as she tried on wedding gowns at Costco's Los Feliz store Thursday.

Struggling against mounting pressure from big-box food retailers, grocery chain Supervalu Inc. has sold off its Bristol Farms stores to a team of local management and a West Coast investment firm. Bristol Farms, based in Carson, operates mostly in Los Angeles County and is known for its organic products and seasonal edible gifts, thanks to an in-house catering service that cooks up everything from gourmet pastries to full holiday meals ? all with upscale prices to match. The 13-store chain, which also has locations in Ventura, San Diego and Riverside counties and in the Bay Area, and a Lazy Acres store in Santa Barbara, will continue to operate under their current names with existing local management.

A Fullerton man's annual ritual -- planting 3,200 tulip bulbs in his frontyard -- comes on full display every spring, when petals of light peach and deep crimson bloom into a colorful neighborhood curiosity. Wayne Daniels, 73, is known simply as the Tulip Man, a mild-mannered retired high school science teacher who looks forward to the annual influx of sightseers, visiting couples and tour buses carrying onlookers from retirement homes. Each spring they arrive to gaze upon the shaded garden in front of the ranch-style home where Daniels lives by himself -- an explosion of color on a quiet suburban street of tidy, simple yards.

Tesco PLC's ambitious U.S. experiment -- 5-year-old grocery chain Fresh & Easy -- has failed after costing its British parent billions of dollars, the company said Wednesday. After a strategic review of the brand in the last year, during which Tesco had indicated it might limp back across the pond to lick its wounds, the largest British grocer confirmed its “ exit from the United States .” Tesco will attempt to sell Fresh & Easy and its 200 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Beauty video blogs have been gaining in popularity. Which are the best to watch? The 10 here have topped YouTube charts in the beauty category in 2012, with the most number of views as of mid-December. The star vloggers (video bloggers) range from Los Angeles YouTube veteran Blair Fowler to a nameless Russian woman dubbed "4Oxygene" to rising personalities Venus Palermo of Britain and Anastasiya Shpagina of the Ukraine, who make themselves up daily to resemble dolls. Two clear trends emerge from the pack: The continuing popularity of braided hairstyles and a new enthusiasm for "living doll" makeup tutorials.