October
5 Golden Apple moves

Golden Apple Comics, a fixture on Melrose Avenue for 27 years, is moving.

The store will close its current location at 7711 Melrose on Oct. 31 and reopen the following day down the street at 7018 Melrose, just east of La Brea on the south side of the street.

“I found this really great spot, with a really great landlord and great surrounding businesses,” says Ryan Liebowitz, who came in to help run the family-owned store after his father, Golden Apple founder Bill Liebowitz, passed away in October 2004.

Leibowitz says the new location has new floors, high ceilings, track lighting, is comparable in size to the current location, and has parking so customers no longer have to hunt for street spaces and feed the meter. The store will have office space upstairs from the retail space.

The move represents a clean slate for the family-owned store, which has done all it could in 20 years at its current location, says Liebowitz. The businesses surrounding the current spot are not complementary to Golden Apple’s clientele and the building the store operates in is deteriorating, he says.

“We don’t have a landlord who is willing to cooperate on those matters and in fact feels the current market warrants an increase in rent,” he says.

But businesses are moving both east and west of the traditional Melrose strip between La Brea and Fairfax, Liebowitz says, and moving near La Brea put Golden Apple near businesses that make visiting the area more pleasant and that serve a complementary clientele, such as the famous chili-dog outlet Pink’s.

Liebowitz says the new store also will complement Golden Apple’s online efforts, which include launching an online store.

Response since the move was announced Wednesday has been overwhelmingly positive, Liebowitz says. “With our loyal customer base, the move is going to be good and seamless.”

Golden Apple takes possession of the new space and will begin moving in on Oct. 15. At most, the store may have to close for a day or two at the end of the month, but the new location will be open for new comics day on Nov. 1. A small ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration of some kind is in the works for Nov. 1, with a larger grand re-opening party planned for later in November or early December. 

The timing for the move is perfect, Liebowitz says, coming as it does shortly after the Jewish new year and with the current location’s last day being Halloween.

“We’re really just looking for a fresh new beginning,” he says.