Denverite writes: Business has been tough at Troung An Gifts over the last year, so its owners were delighted to field a busy shop full of visitors last week for Lunar New Year.
Mimi Luong, who runs the Federal Boulevard business with her husband, siblings and parents, said Asian customers who couldn’t travel to Vietnam or China were clamoring for decorations and treats to celebrate at home in Denver. But she’s had to try some new things to keep other customers interested.
Usually, residents of all stripes would be drawn to her family’s parking lot and store by lion dancers, music and fireworks ringing in the new year. But the annual festival was off the table in 2021 thanks to COVID-19. Instead, Luong has spent recent weeks drumming up interest on Facebook and Instagram. She helped devise a couple of care packages for sale online, then began giving one away each day through her social media feeds. The Good Fortune bag, for instance, comes with a plush doll to celebrate the Year of the Ox, some sweets and some decorations.
“It has been a slow year,” she said. “We did more stuff that we’ve never done before, curbside pickups and phone orders.”
But Luong hasn’t had to navigate these strange times by herself. The Denver Streets Partnership, the West Denver Renaissance Collaborative and the BuCu West Development Association have been working together to promote businesses like hers along Federal, acting like a Business Improvement District (BID) in the absence of an official organization along the corridor. If they can help keep shops and restaurants afloat during this pandemic recession, they hope property owners will see the value in raising taxes to create a formal BID once the economy levels out.
Jill Locantore, Denver Streets Partnership’s executive director, said business owners couldn’t wait for an official BID when the economy disintegrated, so advocates “pivoted” to provide support themselves.
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