In college, I lived in cooperative housing. The idea of a cooperative is that the members run and co-own it, contributing money (rent) and time (chores), and decisions are made communally. Which sounds not too different from any shared living situation—except that there were over 120 students in the house I lived in, 1000+ in the parent organization, and the organization was able to save its members a lot of money because it owned its buildings and bought supplies wholesale.

Anyway.

One day I was riding BART home from a demonstration (it was early 2003, people were protesting the Iraq war) and someone handed me a bumpersticker that said REFUSE EMPIRE. I was about to hand it back for lack of a bumper to stick it on, but then it hit me that I knew exactly where to put this sticker. I went home and stuck it on the wall in a particular area of my co-op, an area where I spent a lot of time because of my assigned chore. What was that chore?

I love quirky business names. The people who used to cut my hair in my hometown (yes, I got haircuts) wanted to name their shop Curl Up and Dye, but the city wouldn't grant a license for that name because they thought it was too morbid. But I digress.

The Google Maps snippet at left shows a possible walking route between two downtown Oakland businesses with amusing names. As you can see, if I needed an engraved trophy and a Red Bull, I'd only have to walk 46 feet between errands.

Why do you think Aardvark Laser Engraving called themselves that? And what about Both Sides Convenience Store? (No, it's not a 16 vs. 17 thing.)

Solution

I should say that I have no inside knowledge of either business, only speculation.

Aardvark has been around for a while, so they probably chose that name in order to be listed first alphabetically in the yellow pages. You know, the phonebook? Anyone? …

But, look, Ena's answer is way better than mine:

aardvarks run the store. they are very good at laser engravings. this may seem surprising but it is a rather well known fact the aardvarks are really, really good and way more skilled than humans at making trophies, so it only makes sense for them to run the store. their front claws are very sharp and that is how they engrave the trophies; the "laser" part of the name is intentionally misleading. they like to eat ants and termites so that is what the customers pay them instead of money.

As for Both Sides, hopefully you got a sense of scale from the map: the building occupied by Both Sides sits on a narrow wedge formed by Telegraph and Broadway. You can, in fact, enter the store from either side.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Zane, Lemonade, Yana, Ena, Anna J., Leo S., Jason, Graham, and Mr. Gregg. Thanks to everybody who made a guess!