Boulder Bazaar, a Pearl Street boutique known for handcrafted Nepalese and Tibetan clothing, art and religious objects, will close at the end of August.
For now, customers still pass a several-foot-long dragon sculpture at the entrance and step into the sound of bamboo flutes and the soft percussion of the madal, a traditional Nepali drum. Incense hangs in the air. Painted wooden masks line the walls, and hand-carved statues crowd the shelves. Behind a glass display case sits Venus Sakha, the owner, preparing to leave the store where she has spent much of the past two decades.
Declining sales and sparse foot traffic have made it difficult for Sakha to pay the rent. By the middle of last winter, she had decided to remain open for one final summer and then retire.
“You always take on loss in winter,” Sakha said. “Summer is better, but not like in previous years.”
The store’s official last day is Aug. 31, although the chalkboard sign out front says Aug. 23.
“Customers should know to come, because we’ll need to pack everything, but we’ll keep selling until Aug. 31,” Sakha said.
The closeout sale, with discounts of 50% to 60%, began in mid-June.
“People have been coming in, but not enough,” Sakha said. “A lot of clothes are gone, and the smaller statues are going.”
Larger statues, including a towering gold-plated one in the window, have been harder to sell.
Sakha hopes to sell whatever remains online, but e-commerce is unfamiliar territory.
“I need help from my kids,” she said with a laugh. “When we opened the store, at that time, there was no online retail.”
Sakha and her husband, Babu Shrestha, opened Boulder Nepal at 1330 Pearl St. in 2006, a year after they moved to Boulder. The store remains open but is now owned by one of Sakha’s relatives. A few years later, the couple opened Boulder Bazaar at 1500 Pearl St., in the district now known as the East End.
“At that time, people were very nice,” Sakha said. “And people were willing to pay whatever price was listed on the items. Now, even when we do a discount, nobody wants to buy. They like it, but they say, ‘Oh, it’s very hard to afford.’”
Customers who once eagerly bought the store’s handcrafted pieces now hesitate over the prices, Sakha said.
“People just aren’t willing to spend the money anymore,” she said.
The East End also draws fewer pedestrians than the brick-lined blocks of the Pearl Street Mall, according to Sakha.
“In those days, it was a very busy block. But now, it’s very slow,” she said. “After six, oh my god, it’s dead.”
E-commerce has brought additional competition.
“It’s easy for people to buy this kind of thing online,” Sakha said. “They ship from Nepal. The world has become very small from the internet.”
A piece of Nepal on Pearl Street
Nepalese and Tibetan cultures have long had a visible presence in Boulder, something Sakha noticed when she first visited the city in 2003 or 2004. She was charmed by Boulder and by residents’ familiarity with Nepal.
“It was so beautiful, and Pearl Street was so busy, not like nowadays,” she recalled.
An older woman wearing a Nepali shawl made Sakha feel unexpectedly at home.
“When I saw all that, I wanted to stay in Boulder.”
Sakha’s native language is Newari, an Indigenous language spoken primarily in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. She has been startled to meet people in Boulder who speak both Nepali and Newari and know her family’s traditions and food.
“Lots of people here in Boulder know about Hindu deities,” Sakha said.
Many of the deity statues sold at Boulder Bazaar are handmade in Nepal and India. Some are plated in gold or bronze and feature intricate craftsmanship. Clothing racks hold colorful garments and shawls, while shelves display sculptures and religious objects.
Over the years, the store has also become part of its customers’ personal histories.
“Sometimes people come in and say, ‘I came here when I was a kid,’” Sakha said. “Lots of people know about this store.”
“Lots of people from other states tell me that when they come to Boulder, they always come to the store,” Sakha said. “When they say that, I feel so, oh my god, emotional.”
Boulder Bazaar is one of several locally owned retailers confronting declining sales and rising costs. Bliss, a gift and art boutique a block away, has launched a fundraiser as it fights to remain open.
John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, said independent businesses are being squeezed by cautious consumer spending and rising expenses.
“There’s a national scope of issues,” Tayer said. “Import tariffs, inflation costs and higher labor costs are all contributing to greater expenses for our downtown. These are challenging times for our local independent businesses.”
For Sakha, closing Boulder Bazaar means leaving a street that has defined much of her working life.
“I don’t want to retire,” she said. “I want to work. But I will have the time to go somewhere.”
Running the store has kept Sakha from taking extended vacations for nearly two decades. Even when she traveled to Nepal to source merchandise, her brother stayed behind to watch the shop. Retirement will give her more time to travel and visit her adult children, but she remains ambivalent about leaving.
“Sometimes I feel very bad,” she said. “But I’m thinking, I can go anywhere. My daughter lives in New York, and I can go visit her.”
“I’ve been working for 20 years on Pearl Street,” she said. “I love it here.”
