After decades on South Pearl Street, Charlotte Elich is ready for something new.
The founder of bohemian gift shop 5 Green Boxes will close her stores at 1705 S. Pearl St. and within Union Station at the end of March, she told BusinessDen. She opened the former, which recently moved to its current address, 27 years ago and added the downtown outpost in 2014.
All of the store’s jewelry, home goods, cards and the like will be 50% off until 5 Green Boxes shuts down.
“It’s just getting harder to be in business, and you need employees but you can’t really afford employees,” Elich said. “I came on this block when I was 23 – that’s 50 years ago. Things have changed and I feel like I need to pare things down and start thinking about my life.
“I love doing this,” she added, “but it’s just getting too difficult.”
Elich said things flipped at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when retailers temporarily shuttered and online shopping became the norm. Before that, sales had grown every year since opening in 1999. But as foot traffic dwindled over the past five years, so have margins and revenue.
At the same time, the city of Denver also passed new minimum wage laws. She said it costs her money to keep the Union Station store running, even with just one employee. Her seven staffers pre-pandemic turned to two, and she nixed extra weekend hours because foot traffic dropped.
“All I do is pay payroll, and yesterday I made $4,” Elich said. “I have to put myself behind the counter because I’m not waiting on a paycheck.”
Elich said she isn’t completely going away. Her women’s apparel boutique will remain open in the Platt Park neighborhood, at least for the time being. And she plans to host pop-ups at 1705 S. Pearl, a building she owns.
She also might host events at her Lincoln Park warehouse, but those plans could be complicated if the area is deemed “blighted” ahead of the Broncos upcoming stadium nearby.
Ariel Elich, Charlotte’s daughter, told BusinessDen last week that the property could be knocked down for a mixed-use project, whether by the family or an outside developer. Charlotte Elich echoed the same, but said things are still up in the air.
Charlotte Elich is a South Pearl lifer, spearheading many of the street’s staple events like farmers markets, winter fest and a festival celebrating artisans worldwide called Global Love Fest.
She opened the yarn store Skyloom Fibers on the street in the 1970s. Before that, she worked at a mechanic’s shop nearby for several years.
“After 50 years, I can say I’ve done it. I’ve done this incredible thing a couple of times,” she said of opening her various stores. “But maybe it’s time that I retire. I’m still overseeing a few little things, so we’ll see where we go from here.”
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