Miji Park and her Idea Corp co-workers have been providing free consulting to 20 distinctive New Orleans small businesses since this summer. They've been helping the stores find ways to cope with the declining number of tourists by expanding their customer base and online operations.
Here are some of some of the French Quarter stores they've been working with:
Maskarade: A purveyor of high-end Mardi Gras masks, this store supports over 25 local artists - with pricetags generally over $100 - but Park says that since Katrina, its customer base is down 50 to 70 percent. Store employee Laura Sullivan says too many of New Orleans' tourists these days are primarily in town for volunteer work and are unwilling to drop big bucks on masks. There used to be four other mask shops in the French Quarter, but Maskarade is the only one left. Things have gotten so bad, Sullivan says, that her boyfriend - who used to be manager of the store - now spends his days working construction, where he makes twice as much money daily as he used to.
Bourbon French Parfums: Established in 1843, this store has an affinity for the 19th century. It brews its own perfumes and colognes in-house (custom orders welcome) and boasts selling an exact duplicate of the "first cologne ever made." That, of course, was from Cologne, Germany, and was the same concoction that Napoleon himself used - apparently, the general lathered himself in the stuff to wipe away his battlefield odor. Business has stunk lately, though, with employee Ronda Trepagnir reporting that sales were down 60 percent in the last month.
Wehmeier's: What do alligators, ostriches and sting rays have in common? Their skins have all been dried and tanned and are now available for sale in the exotic leather shop Alvin Wehmeier founded 55 years ago. A feisty 80-year-old, Wehmeier says that even though his sales have been down 40 percent, his business is the only one out of five on his block to survive. "The French Quarter isn't up and running like it should be," he says, complaining that although tourists seem happy to frequent the Quarter's signature Cafe du Monde for coffee and their trademark beignets - a cross between fried dough and doughnut - "you can't put beignets in the bank."
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