Santee Alley, Los Angeles

[doc savage]

So to day I had some time to kill after dropping off my girl to visit her sisters; I figured it was a perfect time to check out Santee Alley. I love to fondle things before I buy them, so I thought I could pick up a few of the cheaper watches on my shopping list and just order the nice "Ultimate" ones from our trusty trusted dealers.

I am pretty familiar with Canal Street in New York, so I expected to find something similar here on the other side of our fine country. WRONG.

On Canal Street it is dead simple to find watches. I would say about one in four of the small shops have a display case with about 3 dozen reps, surrounded by cheap watches that I assume they use for camouflage when there is a raid. This adds up to thousands of reps on the street, and healthy competition as well. Of course there is a lot of useless junk, but you can find most of what you would see on Silix's basic site for around $40 if you haggle.

Santee Alley, on the other hand, is a ridiculous sprawling flea market of useless crap. Get used to seeing the same absurdly fake bags, ugly jeans, cheap toys, and stupid blankets every ten feet for. Also enjoy tripping over pirated DVD's being sold underfoot while dodging stroller pushing families of twenty who for unknown reasons think this place is great for a weekend outing. I DID see some cute womens clothes, but that was like two shops out of thousands of crappy ones. Most of the clothes are not fake, but brands no one ever heard of that look somewhat like the expensive ones. I checked out a couple shops that sold men's brands that I wear; they were only slightly less expensive than the boutique shops (maybe 20-25% discount).

By the way, to the gross looking women fighting over the worst knock-off bags I have ever seen, NO ONE ON EARTH is going to see you with that bag and picture you buying it at South Coast Plaza. You do see a few trendy L.A. chicks trying to score a fake Gucci and sneak out without bumping into any of their friends, but 99.9% of the "ladies" there are HELL OF NASTY. <end rant>

OK, it took me two hours before I saw any reps, but eventually I found FIVE shops selling them. It wasn't like they were trying to hide them, it just doesn't seem to be much of a business anymore. Not a single Rolex to be found, by the way. The most common watches were:

#1: AP ROO, either quartz or with phony chronos. For some reason they were mostly the Shaq edition.

#2: Breitling for Bentley (for all the flea market playas) I saw a Flying B which in hindsight wasn't so terrible

#3: Hilariously bad Panerais galore

#4: Hublot Big Bang, these were almost as bad looking as the Panerais. They also seemed really small, are the cheap reps smaller than the good ones for some reason?

So in the end I didn't get anything, since they were so bad I sort of lost my appetite for watches. I thought I could at least find a Bell&Ross, but the only one I liked had paint missinf from the logo on the dial, and the dealer still wanted $70 for it. I also found the quartz T3 that I kind of like, but it was WAY too small. The verdict is do not waste your time--unless you really want a quartz Shaq watch.

[Victoria]

By the way, to the gross looking women fighting over the worst knock-off bags I have ever seen, NO ONE ON EARTH is going to see you with that bag and picture you buying it at South Coast Plaza. You do see a few trendy L.A. chicks trying to score a fake Gucci and sneak out without bumping into any of their friends, but 99.9% of the "ladies" there are HELL OF NASTY. <end rant>

LOL! I know the ones you mean.

OTOH, have you seen the amount of fat bald schlubbs who buy Panerai and Rolexes? Wonder who they are trying to kid.

#1: AP ROO, either quartz or with phony chronos. For some reason they were mostly the Shaq edition.

#2: Breitling for Bentley (for all the flea market playas) I saw a Flying B which in hindsight wasn't so terrible

#3: Hilariously bad Panerais galore

#4: Hublot Big Bang, these were almost as bad looking as the Panerais. They also seemed really small, are the cheap reps smaller than the good ones for some reason?

This is a much-needed peak at a place I didn't even know existed -- Santee Alley. Thanks, Doc!

I wish someone would post their cities' backstreet counterfeit areas, although in non-metropolises in America, it's hard.

In South Florida, there are parts of Westchester and Hialeah where you can find knock-offs, but that's under-the-counter merchandise. Nothing like this place in LA or heaven forbid, Canal St.

It doesn't help that we have no Chinatown at all. Toronto has two!

[trektagger]

Living in SoCal I have visited the alleys many times and you are right its not worth it. Nothing but junk and if you thought it was bad try going in the middle of june with high humidity and everyone cramped together in there. I'm thankful we have the dealers we do.

[doc savage]

To be fair, the Alley is a small part of a huge booming fashion district. I have no doubt that there are a ton of great fashion deals to be found there, for someone who knows where to look. The shops are ridiculously small and the upper levels are a maze of elevators and corridors with tiny shops everywhere you look. I don't think there is another place in the U.S. quite like it.

[eunomians]

Santee Alley is located in the garment district. It makes sense for a place like this to be what it is. Low income folks from neighboring Boyle Heights & Huntington Park, etc.. shop there for a reason - they cannot afford to go to South Coast Plaza.