Other things

Here are some of the main shopping districts, though of course there are many other places, like the ones littered all along the El Camino Real.

• Stanford Shopping Center---north of campus on El Camino, in Palo Alto. Expensive. Large quality department stores, many smaller shops and restaurants.

• Town & Country Village---corner of El Camino and Embarcadero, in Palo Alto. Expensive specialty shops, a food market, and restaurants.

• San Antonio Shopping Center---northeast corner of San Antonio and El Camino, in Mountain View. Large low-cost department stores and discount stores. Many other small shops and restaurants. This is one of the two best places to go to buy household goods at sensible prices. Especially at the Target, behind the shopping center proper. There's also a Cost Plus Imports not too far away on El Camino.

• Price Club---2200 Middlefield Road, Redwood City. There is a $25 annual fee to shop here, but thereafter you can buy mountainous quantities of food and all sorts of household goods at very cheap prices. You can join if a Stanford Federal Credit Union member, on University Payroll, or if qualifying in one of a thousand other ways. There's also another Target up near here.

• Downtown Palo Alto---along University Avenue and nearby streets. Lots of small stores and restaurants.

• Downtown Menlo Park---along Santa Cruz Avenue, west of El Camino. Not as many small stores, but the restaurant scene is getting busier.

• California Avenue---off El Camino, south of campus in Palo Alto. Many small shops and restaurants, and the Mollie Stone's supermarket.

Garage sales are rather common on weekends, and providing you can afford to wait a bit, they're the best source of household items at real bargain prices. In addition, on-campus residents have access to a ``loan closet'' in Abrams Court in Escondido Village, which loans out such things as linens and utensils for a small fee (about $5 for the year). The Stanford Recycling Center purportedly runs a ``Free Store'' where you can take unwanted but useful items and get useful things other people didn't want.