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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Newsstand Rebrands as a Convenience Store

It’s a hard time for print media. Just ask Dana Belle, owner of Sherman Oaks Newsstand, a 24-hour street-side newspaper and magazine vendor that has been a staple on the corner of Van Nuys and Ventura boulevards since 1949. After closing for two months to renovate and rebrand, the newsstand reopened March 10 with a new look that Belle hopes will provide a sustainable source of long-term revenue. “Being able to get articles online hurt the business. We had to find a way to revamp and to tie in the old with the new,” Belle said. Now, rather than solely selling print magazines and newspapers, the business has evolved into a convenience store similar to a New York City bodega. In addition to print must-haves like Los Angeles Times, Variety Magazine and the Business Journal, Belle also sells miscellaneous items including sugar, ketchup, Tylenol, prepaid phone cards and electronic chargers. Belle’s own handcrafted candles, jewelry and homemade cookies — her grandmother’s recipe — are for sale, too. In December, Belle thought she might have to shutter her business. It was hard enough to keep the newsstand afloat day-to-day in the digital age, but then disaster struck — a driver fell asleep at the wheel and drove onto the sidewalk, crashing into the newsstand and leaving damages Belle couldn’t afford to repair on the newsstand’s meager profits. “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she said. But the tides changed with the arrival of an investor — Purespectrum Inc., a publicly traded media conglomerate for which Belle works as a part-time television host conducting red carpet interviews. They put up the funds needed for the newsstand to renovate and reopen. Now, in addition to the extra stock and shelving, the stand boasts vending machines, a TV monitor broadcasting the newsstand’s own local news show and a community board where businesses can advertise and people can post notices when looking for a lost pet. “Advertising for your business or brand is very visible here,” Belle said of the street corner. “It’s like 67,000 views [daily].” And to directly combat the shift to digital, the newsstand launched Get it on the Go, a delivery service that brings three magazines or newspaper issues of the buyer’s choice to their doorstep for $25. Belle and other newsstand employees deliver local orders by hand. Belle says that though the stand has only been open a few weeks, the new products and services have been good for business. “We’re getting a lot more (customers),” she said. “We even have shopping baskets.” Sherman Oaks Newsstand is one of only a handful of dedicated newsstands still open in the Valley. Code Ninjas Opens A new Code Ninjas learning center has opened in Thousand Oaks, offering kid-centric coding camps that help the youngest generation learn the basics of computer programming. The Oakbrook Plaza storefront had a soft launch in January but celebrated its grand public opening March 6. Code Ninjas aims to give 7 to 14-year-olds the skills to succeed in the future job market where labor of all kinds will lean increasingly on computer science, automation, and human-machine teaming to make tasks easier. Students begin by learning foundational commands like how to create shapes and make them move, and eventually advance to writing lines in JavaScript and gaming engine Unity. As their abilities improve, they gain ranks based on the belt system in martial arts. The end goal is for each student to publish their own playable game on Apple’s app store. Membership options include month-to-month, six-month or annual plans. A one-month trial period includes eight hour-long sessions held twice weekly for $150. Code Ninjas has more than 100 franchised locations throughout the U.S. and a location in Camarillo is “coming soon,” according to the company website. Cafe Bizou Shutters Cafe Bizou, a long-standing French restaurant in Sherman Oaks, closed at the end of last month. The restaurant served its last meal on March 31, completing a 25-year run. A notice on the Cafe Bizou website reads: “It was not a sudden decision … but the conclusion of an amazing chapter.” Cafe Bizou offered approachable and affordably priced French cuisine on Ventura Boulevard since 1995, when it took over the lease from Shain’s, another eatery once owned by Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello fame. Ownership will now focus solely on Cafe Bizou’s Agoura Hills location at 30315 Canwood St. It is the chain’s last remaining outlet — Bizou Santa Monica closed in 2013, and Bizou Pasadena closed in 2018. Staff Reporter Andrew Foerch can be reached at [email protected] or at (818) 316-3130.

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