When it comes to buying home appliances, where can you go other than Best Buy and Circuit City? If you're anything like me, you want to spend your money somewhere other than the corporate behemoths, with their limited selection and often less than stellar customer service.

Boston Appliance is a local, family-owned appliance store, located on Summer St. in South Boston. I've gone in there a couple times since I moved to Southie (they're only a block away from me) and had chances to talk to two of their salesmen, Ken Petrillo and Christian Jason. Christian's family owns the company, and recently moved it from downtown Boston to their current location on Summer St. Both of them have been more than willing to talk to me, even though I told them I rented (and therefore was not about to spend money on appliances).

Boston Appliance sells ranges, ovens, refrigerators and anything else you could think of for your kitchen from everyone from Amana to Sub Zero, or as I said to Christian, "from every I want to everything I can afford". They have a beautiful, open showroom, although Christian told me they are rearranging the space to make room for a bigger display of islands. They have a pretty basic website, but I'm told that plans to upgrade it are in the works.

Boston Appliance is located at 840 Summer St, South Boston, MA. Their hours of operation are Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00, and Saturdays 9:00-1:00.