Conveniently located . . .

One thing that I will say for living in Renton is that we are close to a lot of businesses that usually lure Seattleites down to our neck of the woods on weekends. They are probably located in the Renton area because:

1. Land here is undoubtably cheaper than in Seattle.
2. Parking is plentiful.
3. Renton can be easily accessed from the Seattle area (via I-5) or the East side (via I-405).

Here are some of the stores that are in (or near) Renton:

1. IKEA--Everyone's favorite cheap yet chic Swedish furniture store. To keep the Swedish super chain happy, the Renton city council was planning to rename the street that IKEA is on "IKEA Way." The only problem is that the other businesses on that street weren't overjoyed to include the name of a competitor in their addresses. Imagine going to shop at the Mor Furniture on IKEA Way. Doesn't really work does it? They settled on the "IKEA Business District"
   
   
2. McLendon's Hardware--A local fixture in Renton since 1926. It's the kind of place where redneck-ish (in a cute way) female cashiers have no qualms about calling you "sweety" and "honey." It's always been a nice hardware store, and they just moved into a much larger space--a vacant K-mart on Rainier Ave. It's a little pricier than Home Depot, but it's also 1/4 mile from my house!
   
   
3. Fry's--The electronics dealer's only store in Washington State. Better prices and better service than your average Best Buy or Circut City.
   
   
4. There are a variety of really nice antique stores in downtown Renton. I had no idea until I moved here.
   
   
5. In the near future (2007) they'll be even more retail options: They're building a new retail park in Renton similar to Redmond Town Center.
   
   
6. Also, we're not far (3-4 miles) from Tukwila where Costco, Home Depot, PetSmart, Best Buy, etc. are located.

It's convenient to shop in Renton, it's mostly meglo-stores (we have a Wal-Mart too, but that's hardly an accomplishment), but it's still pretty convenient when you need to run out and get something on the way home from work.