Small businesses in Los Altos have through March 10 to apply for additional Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo’s office and the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce have announced. The new, limited application period applies to businesses of 20 employees or fewer.
Business & Real Estate
Plant and pots store in downtown Los Altos chugs along
Photos Courtesy of Raymundo Maldonado
Chinelo Design, a cozy shop full of plants, is located at the corner of State and Third streets in downtown Los Altos.
Tucked in a corner at State and Third streets, in between a law office and a skincare center, sits a cozy space full of plants.
“Not a lot of people know about me,” said Raymundo Maldonado, owner of Chinelo Design, which calls itself a “plant and pots store.”
Column: What you should consider before buying bitcoin
Bitcoin is in the news again. This time it’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s announcement that he recently purchased $1.5 billion worth last month.
Its price subsequently spiked above $40,000. That’s for just one bitcoin. Musk also revealed that Tesla is planning to accept bitcoins for car purchases. Let’s hope the company’s cashiers will be provided with enough cash in their tills to be able to make change. Now that you know Musk is jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon, you might be inclined to invest in it as well.
Restaurant roundup: New eateries open, established spots offer takeaway specials
Photos by Eliza Ridgeway/Town Crier
Los Altos’ House on First has an expanded rotisserie menu for outdoor or takeaway dining, left. Mr. Cake Plus baker Santosh Chankyam, right, sells savory pastry puffs, cake slices and made-to-order decorated cakes at his new Mountain View bake shop.
As we round the horn of a full year under pandemic protocols, local restaurants continue to experiment with new menus and even a few bold debuts.
Aurum has been drawing rapturous interest since the Town Crier first wrote about its debut at 132 State St. in Los Altos. Following is a rundown of other new places to try, as well as new takeaway meal options to explore at longtime standbys.
On the Market: What/where to sell and donate when downsizing
Megan V. Winslow/Los Altos Town Crier
Relocating to a new home presents a great opportunity to whittle down belongings.
Many home sellers these days either grew up in households that remembered the Depression or were a product of the “more-is-better” generation of collectors. Many of today’s smaller homes or condos don’t have much storage space. Younger families are looking more for experiences rather than things.
For sellers, the conversations often turn to: What do we do with the exercise equipment we don’t use? Aunt Mable’s old piano? Those old board games? The record collection? The books collecting dust on the shelves? The china we no longer use that the kids don’t want?
Nest Egg Column: There are some lessons everyone can learn from the GameStop saga
I’m sure by now you’ve heard about GameStop. The saga reads like a made-for-TV morality tale about how the little guys stuck it to the big bad rich Wall Street hedge fund investors through what’s called a “short squeeze.” But the story has not yet played out to its end, and there are valuable lessons that everyone should be gleaning from it.
What happened in brief is that a number of hedge fund managers saw GameStop as a company with poor growth prospects and a stock price in continuing decline. Consequently, they shorted its stock, which involves borrowing a lot of shares and selling them with the expectation of buying them back at a much lower price in the future, thereby making a lot of money.
