FAST BUCK FREDDIE’S

All good things come to an end. Nothing is forever.

Fast Buck Freddie’s closed down three years ago. Support for a store of its quality no longer existed.

I loved Fast Buck Freddie’s! Great stuff! Expensive prices! Nothing cheap. It was not a place you shopped in often. Anything purchased there was a treat.

I recall 15 years ago buying my wife a mask for Fantasy Fest. A gold eye mask with big green feathers. Looked terrific! It should have. Cost me $125. The mask sits to this day on my bedroom dresser on top of a glass head. I got it in the divorce.

Whenever I made a Fast Buck purchase, it was based on impulse. I walked in one day and saw this elephant chair. Short. Heavy. I could never have lifted it. With a pair of two foot tusks. I knew immediately where it would look good in my living room. $1,000.

My Boston granddaughter Samantha was visiting. She was 12 at the time. Grandpa offered to buy her a tee shirt. Why or who or what directed us to Fast Buck Freddie’s for the tee shirt, I cannot recall. I remember however that the tee shirt for my 12 year old granddaughter cost $60.

I am not listing complaints. I loved every minute I spent in Fast Buck Freddie’s and every penny I spent. The place was the Taj Mahal of Key West!

Its street windows were long and huge. The best window displays in Key West! I doubt anyone would dispute the representation.

Over the years, the building housing Fast Bucks was owned individually or jointly or whatever by Tony Falcone, Jimmy Buffet, and David Wolkowsky.

Tony Falcone operated Fast Buck Freddie’s for 37 years. The store has been empty for three years. Falcone has done everything possible to get a Key West type occupant in the store. To no avail. CVS is going to open a drug store in place of Fast Buck Freddie’s. Falcone feels bad. However, he had no choice. No one can blame him. Money is money. He hung onto an empty store way too long.

CVS in its new location will be blight on Duval Street. Such is progress!

My house was shown two times yesterday. No one bought it.

There were two highlights in my day yesterday. A visit with Jim Wallace at Joy Gallery. He has my Jack Baron’s for sale. The other was dinner with Lisa and the family last night.

Cameron is back from Turkey. He brought Robert and Ally each a fez. Bright red with a tassel. Robert wears his all the time, except when sleeping. He looks Turkish. Ally was not thrilled. She never wears her fez.

After dinner, I did something I never do. I was driving home. Suddenly had a desire for a soft chocolate ice cream cone. Dairy Queen! Oh, so good!

Enjoy your day!

FAST BUCK FREDDIE’S CLOSING

 

The pending demise of Fast Buck Freddie’s was announced yesterday. Shortly, the most magnificent tiny department store will be no more.

Fast Buck’s owner Tony Falcone made the announcement to staff and the world yesterday.

He is closing for economic reasons. He claims the cruise business hurt. Cruise ship people generally did not buy in his store. Falcone says the cruise boat people also kept the locals from coming downtown. Another reason for the closing he claimed was internet purchasing. Customers would come in to the store, see an item they liked, copy the numbers down, and then buy over the internet.

I like Tony Falcone. He has been a mainstay in Key West for many years. I do not however agree with his reasons. From my perspective, Fast Buck Freddie’s is going down because it was a bit too pricey. People either do not have money or are not spending it in this down economy. Fast Buck’s had to sell a cheaper item or lower its prices to stay in business. It did neither.

Whatever the reason, there will be a huge gap in the middle of Duval Street where Fast Buck Freddie’s has sat these many years. A sad reflection  of the times.

Follies opened in Los Angeles last night! Terri White was a hit as usual.

Los Angeles critic Paul Hodgins wrote that “…Terri White tears up the stage as a larger-than-life Stella in Who’s That Woman.”

Go Terri!

This morning my Internet show. The Key West Lou Legal Hour. Ten o’clock in the morning my time. Join me for what I promise will be a most interesting show.

Enjoy your day!