Small Ashland business condenses, closes one of its stores

ASHLAND, Ore.– A boutique store in Ashland is officially closing its doors as coronavirus and stay-at-home orders take their toll.

Bestow & Bloom, a thriving boutique plant shop, had grown into opening a second store called Bestow last September. On May 1, it announced it would be shutting down its original store.

“It was doing great,” said co-owner Chris Keefe. “The workshops were really, really taking off and [Bestow & Bloom] kind of had a life of its own.”

Once awarded by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce as “The Emerging Business of 2019,” the sign of the times is now hitting hard.

After three years as of April 7, the owners decided it would be best financially to condense all of their stores’ products into the new store and DIY workshop in south Ashland.

“Bestow & Bloom was getting all these awards and all this and now it’s gone,” said Keefe as he stood in the nearly empty store.

Keefe says they did get help from the new federal loans but it wasn’t enough and he and his wife had to make a difficult decision.

“After a lot of thought and a lot of crying we realized we just couldn’t do both of them,” he said.

Keefe says they’ve consolidated everything into their new store. They’re holding out, waiting to see what happens next. Like a bad dream, it’s hard to watch but they’re hopeful things will get better and the family plans to make the most of it. But if business continues to falter for the city’s many small businesses, Keefe worries a year out from now what the city might look like.

Still, Keefe is hopeful there will be good things to come. He doesn’t view this as a setback but an opportunity to show his family was successful at what they did. And maybe one-day Bestow may bloom again.

“We’re gonna give it our best shot,” said Keefe. “We’re going to put our all into it because we know the happiness that it brings us and we’ve seen the happiness that it brings to everybody in our community.”

Bestow says it’s not sure it fits the criteria for Gov. Brown’s potential reopening on May 15. However, the store is operating by appointment only for private visits to the store to shop and has deliveries available every Friday. You can make an appointment on their website.