So much is going on with our many businesses in Boulder City that it is hard to keep up. If someone leaves for a few weeks, he’ll need to take another look around the city once he returns. Many of our regular stores have moved, switched places, or have simply closed.
Among those businesses that have switched and changed is one of our town’s great coffee venues.
Very soon we’ll be able to eat at the much-anticipated expansion of Chilly Jilly’z Java, Soft-Serve and Shaved Ice. Currently located in Red Mountain Plaza, Chilly Jilly’z is a drive-thru serving all items to go. Because of its small drive-thru configuration, it provides very little on-site eating space.
Bee’s Nursery and the canvas store that were across the street in Marshall Plaza have both closed and Chilly Jilly’z has taken over the site next door.
Jilly’z will soon open an indoor and outdoor eatery, providing a welcoming space for not just those passing through town, but for locals, too.
Another switch will soon come at the former KFC. It looks as if fried-food fans will still be able to get their fix when a Winchell’s doughnut shop opens in KFC’s place.
All of this business-switching can get confusing. About a year ago DCI Photography, in the Vons Center, moved a few blocks away. And since the city’s only Hallmark shop was near DCI in the same center, this left a big gap of vacant shops until only a few months ago.
We now have a new ice cream shop, Scoops, serving classic Thrifty ice cream. This brand has been hard to find over the last decade or so, therefore it has experienced a very successful opening. But it just seems that as one business goes in at the Vons Center, another few go out.
Great Clips, a hair salon, lasted only a year, if that. Guess it just didn’t have enough business. And now the CVS pharmacy has moved.
CVS’s absence from the Vons Center could create a hassle. Shoppers will have to remember that they can no longer park at the Vons grocery store and expect to run into CVS at the same time.
With CVS now across the street, customers must get back into their cars and traverse traffic again. Although it is within walking distance of Vons, you would more than likely get there quicker by driving. By the time you waited for all the traffic while walking, your car would have made it there.
One of the sadder switches is the only privately owned market in town closing. When Central Market closed after years of struggling and changing owners, people still hoped it would be saved and continued as a grocery store. But it was not to be, and it switched into an antique mall, adding to our bevy of antique shops in town, which is a good thing for tourism.
I’ve only scratched the surface, but the point is that despite the continuing changes that take place in our city’s businesses, entrepreneurship is good. It is great to have so many differing businesses and a continual flow of change.
It is good to support independent businesses, and it is good to have a choice.
Chris Frausto is a five-year resident who has moved all her creative energy
from California to Boulder City. She can
be contacted at christina.frausto@
gmail.com.