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Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Los Angeles has more stores than anyone could physically tackle, but somehow we always keep returning to the usual suspects. To break out of the rut, we've asked some local shopping and fashion gurus to provide their hidden retail gems—those unique stores around LA that we might not all know about. Cue the Beatles: We're about to get a little help from our friends.
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Image via Family Blog
Matt Allard is an author, a freelance copywriter and a self-proclaimed Internet geek. He used to manage the social media presence for Disney Pixar, and since then, he's published his first book—a collection of short stories inspired by illustrations from Ian Dingman called To Slow Down The Time. He's currently working on a second book and when he needs inspiration, he heads to Family, a shop on Fairfax that he considers one of LA's best kept secrets (until now).
"While we're lucky to have a couple dynamite independent bookstores in town, Family (in my opinion) is the greatest unsung hero of L.A.'s creative lit scene. It's sandwiched between several graffitied storefronts in the skater area of Fairfax Avenue?and you won't find any Dan Brown or Eat, Pray, Love on their shelves. Instead, they've got an impressive stock of coffee table and collectible books, as well as lit journals, zines, poetry collections, graphic tees, experimental vinyl, and posters. Inspired stuff! You'd struggle to find a lot of their merchandise anywhere else in town, which is what makes it one of my most favorite places to browse."
· Family Los Angeles [Official Site]
· Life Serial [Tumblr]
· All Shopping Confidential Posts [Racked LA]