Cheapo

Uptown Location on Fremont between Lake and Lagoon

I probably go to Cheapo way too much. I'm the current Foursquare Mayor of Cheapo, and I've only been checking in on Foursquare for a little over a month. It helps that I live so close that it's only a five minute walk from my apartment, but the real draw is in the name: There's a lot of cheap stuff here, and you've gotta go often to find the best deals. And if that means I have to go four or five times a week, so be it.

Cheapo is a small, independently owned chain of stores that sells music and movies, both new and used. I think there's either three or four locations in and around the Twin Cities, but I'm not really sure since their garish website is kind of hard to read and even harder to navigate. The stores themselves are also garish, but at least they are organized well and make browsing easy. I've only been to the Uptown store, but it's basically just a giant room the size of an airplane hanger with row after row of CDs, DVDs, records, and even VHS tapes as far as they eye can see. Maybe they even have laserdiscs, but I wouldn't know since I've never owned a laserdisc player so I've never looked.

When I go, the first place I head is the section for their recently arrived inventory of used DVDs, which are sorted by the day they arrived. So if it's Monday, I head to the section labelled "Monday" and then work my way backword, usually a day or two until I reach the point in the week when I last came. Since the refresh these sections daily (multiple times a day, actually), I go often because the great stuff will sell out quickly, so you've got to get their at just the right time to find the great deals. That's how I got the Godfather trilogy for ten bucks. That's how I got all six Star Wars films on Blu Ray for about 40 bucks. That's how I got the entire Rush Hour series on DVD for five dollars. Ok... so maybe not everything I buy is great, but when you go you can get what you want. Do you unnderstan' the words that are comin' outta my mouf?!

And just to be clear, I only shop there for used stuff, since their new movies and CDs are way overpriced. As much as I want to support local businesses, when a new movie or CD comes out, I'll probably buy it at Target, since something that they sell for ten or twenty bucks will be twenty or thirty bucks at at Cheapo. But if you don't mind used stuff -- and why wouldn't you? Who are you, the King of England? -- Cheapo has the best selection in town.

There's even a huge section of stuff that is "$4.95 or Less," which mostly contains stuff that no normal person would want to buy, but luckily for me I'm not normal. A little while ago I managed to find the entire Matrix trilogy for about two bucks each. There's always something in this section that's worth picking up for a few bucks, as long as you're willing to pick through dozens of copies of Spider-Man 3, Superman Returns, and various movies you've never heard with pictures of actors like Michael Biehn and Jeff Fahey on the cover.

I'm not at the point where I'm on a first name basis with all the employees, but that's only because I'm antisocial and they're all a bunch of hipsters who seem too cool to chat with that geeky guy who comes in, like, every freakin' day. That's not an insult to them by the way. If I were them I probably wouldn't want to talk to me either. Actually, one of the reasons I feel comfortable returning way too often (and I've been known to go twice in one day) is because they don't try to chat with me. If I'm buying the Rush Hour trilogy on DVD, I don't really want to have a conversation about it. I appreciate the fact that these people allow me to live in my shame without any kind of commentary or judgment.

So that's Cheapo. Check it out if you love music and movies and hate spending a lot of money, just be sure to say hi to me when you stop in.