Five & Dime General Store

A little general store in Old Town. If you need any small gifts or personal items, you can get them here. No deals to be found, strictly tourist pricing. They do have a nice full inventory of products here.

I was so glad to find this little general store in the main area of Old Town San Diego. I was meeting a friend here and didn’t want to be late, but really needed some essentials (toothbrush, toothpaste, painkillers etc.) This shop had it all. It’s small, and mostly focused on kitchy tourist stuff (mugs with your name on them, ponchos, etc) but they totally had the basics too in terms of a tiny drug store. They had a section with laundry detergent, they had snacks, drinks and first aid. They had hair products and bathroom supplies. The staff was friendly and helpful to me!

Came on the evening of August 2^nd (2014). The young lady (chubby, long hair) at the register, had a terrible attitude. I didn’t appreciate the way she handed our purchases on the register, more like she threw the bag at us. We visit San Diego on a regular basis and we will never return to this store. There are other stores in the Old Town area with pleasant employees :)

It’s Old Town. It’s an overpriced tourist trap. There’s nothing wrong with that, just understand this place is the closest «general store» in the area for all the tourist staying in the area. I just needed some tp and fabreeze, that was like $ 16! good lord.

After a long day of shopping in Old Town, we stopped by here to load up on some snacks for the drive back home. Not only did the store have some great drinks, candy, and snacks, but they also had some unique gift items for friends and family back home.
The store had all the usual touristy items like shirts, hoodies, mugs, magnets, and postcards with San Diego printed across the front. They also had some fun stuffed animals and games. We really enjoyed looking at the cute country signs with funny sayings and the old-​fashioned Coca Cola items as well.
This store also had all the drinks and snacks we needed for our trip home. If we needed any toiletries, we could stock up here. They also had a huge selection to all kinds of candy, including some vintage candy that I hadn’t seen in many years.
The customer service seemed really good here. When the tourists ahead of us in line asked tons of questions, the cashier patiently answered each and every one of them. Even though the line was fairly long, she remained friendly and helpful with all of the customers.
With tons of fun gift items and great selection of toiletries and snacks, this is a nice stop while shopping in Old Town.

Yes it is a tourist trap. No I am not a tourist despite the fact that I have an accent. No I am not from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland or Wales!
So, I needed postcards, for Postcrossing and not for just sending to friends saying that I was having a lovely time in San Diego, because well, I am not on vacation in San Diego. I am living here (and therefore doing the mundane things too, not just taking days out to tourist areas).
This place has a decent assortment of postcards and other tourist items which you may or may not need plus drinsk, snacks and toiletries.
All in all the selection was great, I did however find that some of the items were a little on the pricey side.

This place is definitely a tourist trap.
they have everything «San Diego» for about 5x more of what its really worth.
but they also have snacks and drinks… which is why I would come here ALL the time during my break when I worked at a restaurant near by…
The male cashiers are cool, sometimes they would give me discounts because they would see me wearing my ridiculous dress (uniform).
[i think they just felt bad for me] hahaa…
Oh and if you want cigarettes, just go down to the liquor store because here, they’re like $ 8 for a $ 6 pack…
Oh and same goes for medicine, its RIDICULOUSLY expensive here.

This is more than a trinket store (lots of those in the area, yup they all start looking the same too, after a while) packed with souvenirs and San Diego logo clothing– also has cold refrigerated drinks, novelty ice cream like blue bunny, snacks, nuts, candy, gum, toys and hats for the little ones, toiletries, health & beauty items on the other side (there are two parts to this store, but you can enter each part through the middle between the two spaces). I would say that this is the best store in Old Town in terms of size and a variety of merchandise, and since it’s not a specialty store, things are priced somewhat reasonably. I’m not saying that everything is reasonable, it’s a store in Old Town, so yes, expect some higher prices for some things like the health & beauty aisles. We found a few things here.

One stop shop for souvenirs & snacks while walking around Old Town. It’s your modern day general store.

Toys and regression
I can’t help it, so I just admit to it– more often than not, I have to stop at the toy section in most stores and look around. I never outgrew toys, they just stopped making good toys.
Visiting Old Town San Diego, I stopped in a little souvenir shop filled with tons of random chotchkies. For the most part, it wasn’t anything that special. Generic Old Town and San Diego sweatshirts, key chains, licence plates with your name (which they never have Joey) and snacks. I fell in love with the store when I went to the back and saw an entire wall full of toys. And not just any toys, but old school type toys that I played with growing up.
They had a wall full of guns! Cowboy guns, army guns, cap guns, rubber band guns etc. They also had army men and parachute guys. They had a bunch of other toys, but that’s what grabbed my attention. You just don’t see toy guns nowadays. Pretty much every PC group in the country has made it a crime and a sin to even think about playing with guns anymore, but dammit, I loved playing with them when I was younger! This store ended up being an amazing throwback to some great times with friends and playing in backyards. And just when I thought I was being somewhat silly for getting nostalgic for toy guns, I saw some dad rush his two boys over the section and act like a kid himself. He showed the kids all the toys he use to play with a let them pick out whatever they wanted. Taught them how to set up all the army men in the giant bucket and how to distinguish the good guns from the cheap guns. It was pretty neat to see.
The dad and his kids sold me and I purchased some old cowboy cap gun I’m sure I had at one point on my life. The two guys at the register were super nice and even remembered to say thank you, which I thought was outlawed in California, since no one says it anymore.
A nice experience in a pretty neat shop– I’ll definitely stop in again next time I’m down there.