We’re up to the final week in this festive eight week Xmas shopping locally series and we’re going out with a double dose of shops today.
Younger Than Yesterday and Strawberry Fields are sister stores located right next to each other on University, right across from Agatucci’s. They’re both owned and operated by local musical legend, Craig Moore. I’ve been friends with Craig for decades and it’s always fun to hang out with him at the shops.
So let’s go and start the final week of Xmas shopping! I might even buy myself a present!
Here we are at Strawberry Fields and Younger Than Yesterday.
This is definitely Peoria’s most unique storefront! I documented “The Wall” going up here and you can see photos of the progress as it happened by clicking here.
The entrance for both shops is right here, let’s go in and see what’s happening inside!
There’s the owner of both shops, Craig Moore clutching two Christmas albums! I thought we’d switch it up on this last Xmas post and give a gift to a lucky shopper at the beginning of the post and so here we go!
Craig gave me the choice of either The Phil Spector Christmas album or a holiday-themed Ventures album. I went with the Phil Spector Christmas album, because it’s probably the only Christmas album I truly love!
There was just one other shopper in the store at the time, so I bought the album and presented it to her.
This is Tamilyn and she was thrilled to receive it. Merry Christmas, Tamilyn, wonderful to meet and chat with you.
Now let’s take a tour of the two shops!
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Younger Than Yesterday
Here’s the Younger Than Yesterday shop, filled with records, record related items and Little Golden Records dangle from the ceiling.
With all of the posters, lights and decorations, Younger Than Yesterday has a festive feel to it 365 days a year!
If you’re a record collector, you probably already know about this place, but if you don’t, you need to get over here pronto!
As you can see, there’s a huge inventory of records in here to peruse and buy. Craig prefers you to do the latter.
There’s more records in the back room and here’s a photo of the record store from that perspective.
Holiday albums are on display in the record bins.
I never knew that Billy Idol did a holiday album! Oh the useless things you learn at Younger Than Yesterday!
Of course there’s lots of Beatles albums and if you buy a Yellow Submarine Record Player, you get a free Beatles Bag!
There’s rumors that one of them actually has John Lennon’s testicles inside of it! Yeah, yeah…oof!
Anyway, speaking of The Beatles…
Craig and a bunch of his musical friends are putting a Beatles tribute show at the Scottish Rite Theater, which has been refurbished and I recently saw Chip Joyce’s, A Christmas Carol there.
The theater is a fantastic place for a show, and this one sounds like it’s going to be spectacular! The first set is going to be the entire Let It Be album, then the show will explore other Beatles material along with some of their solo songs.
The show is happening on Sunday, January 30th and you can read more about the show and buy tickets by clicking here.
Here we are next door at Strawberry Fields. Craig bills this shop as a “A Psychedelic Boutique.”
Let’s take a look around and get psychedelisized!
There’s a huge selection of compact discs in here. I could spend days flipping through all of them!
There’s more albums over in this store as well.
While Younger Than Yesterday focuses more on rock & roll, there’s all kinds of genres on display in Strawberry Fields. It’s a little bit more of an eclectic inventory.
There’s also all kinds of fun items for sale in here.
A lot of these are one-of-a-kind items that would make for a unique and wonderful Christmas gift.
Check out Spuds MacKenzie up there!
Check out all of The Beatles collectibles in here and this is just a small sampling! If you have a Beatles fan on your gift list, this is the place to come to!
I feel proud because I resisted the urge to make another John Lennon testicle joke! Yeah, yeah…yeah!
Oh, and speaking of The Beatles…
Don’t forget about this upcoming show!
It’s only happening one night and if you miss it, well that means you live in a little place I like to call Squaresville, Daddio!
On my way out, I happened to see a CD by Don Mabus! Don’s one of the musicians playing at The Beatles show and I didn’t know he had a solo CD! Check it out here.
I decided that I would indeed buy myself a gift so Merry Christmas to me!
Both shops are open today, tomorrow and Christmas Eve. So if you need a unique gift, you know where to go!
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Younger Than Yesterday/Strawberry Fields
2615 N. University Street
Peoria
309-682-1116
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Related Posts: The 8 Shops of Xmas @: Trefzger’s Bakery, Urban Artifacts, Popcorn Works & The Sweet Shop, Acme Comics, The Nut House, Relics and lit. on fire books.