For 20 years, Bliss has brought Boulder artists and shoppers together. Now it’s fighting to stay open.

For more than two decades, Bliss has filled a Pearl Street storefront with local art, jewelry and offbeat gifts. To owner Hanna Harem, the boutique is part of what makes downtown Boulder feel like Boulder, rather than a shopping district that could be anywhere. 

Now, she says, the store is fighting to survive. Its struggle reflects broader pressures facing locally owned retailers downtown, including rising costs, unpredictable foot traffic and increasingly cautious consumers. 

Bliss’s sales fell nearly 37% in July compared with the same month last year. The decline did not follow an unusually strong period: Sales in 2025 were already lower than in 2024, according to Harem. 

“This isn’t simply a comparison to an unusually strong year,” Harem wrote in an email to Boulder Reporting Lab. “A nearly 37% decline in a single month is a substantial step backward and really illustrates the level of difficulty we’re facing right now.”

A Bliss employee launched a GoFundMe campaign on Harem’s behalf to help cover the store’s basic expenses and bills. As of Sept. 3, it had raised $2,093 toward a $16,000 goal. 

Inside, Bliss is part curio shop, part local arts hub and part vintage store. Gently used baby clothes hang across from vintage crystal wine glasses. Locally made backpacks sit beside a Colorado 14ers Summit Log and a guidebook to nearby hiking trails. Artwork covers the walls, with small placards introducing the artists behind it.

Founded in 2005 at 1643 Pearl St., Bliss began as a gift and home décor boutique. Harem joined the staff in 2011 and became its owner in 2020. Today, customers browse custom jewelry and accessories, quirky objets d’art, notebooks, gifts and home goods. 

Bliss also carries work by more than a dozen local artists and makers, including painters, jewelry designers, ceramicists and woodworkers. 

Painter Andrew Barker has sold his work through Bliss for the past six years. Bliss was the first store to carry his paintings and has given him another way to take part in Boulder’s visual arts scene.

“They’re really good about putting together events, allowing their artists to demonstrate process and interface with customers directly,” Barker said. 

Because Bliss draws tourists and other visitors, Barker said, it puts his paintings in front of people who might not otherwise encounter his work. 

“You get a lot of eyes on your work,” Barker said. 

Having a steady retail outlet also allows Barker to display and sell his work without taking time away from making it. 

“It’s really helpful to have a place where I can send people when they’re interested in my work,” Barker said. “My only other option is to have them come to my studio, which is often in use, and I have to schedule a time.”

The summer rebound has become harder to count on

For many retailers, winter is the slow season and summer offers a chance to recover. At Bliss, Harem said, that rebound has become harder to count on.

“The cost of operating here is high and continues to rise,” Harem told Boulder Reporting Lab, “while foot traffic and consumer spending have become less predictable each year.”

Rent is only one part of the cost of running a downtown shop. Bliss must also cover payroll, insurance, utilities, credit-card processing fees, taxes and inventory.

“There is very little room for a small business to have a slow month anymore,” Harem said, “and Bliss is experiencing more of those slow months. At this point, it’s fair to say that Bliss is fighting to keep its doors open.”

Harem said some customers browse in the store before buying online, while others are embracing social media trends built around “no-spend months.”

“For a small brick-and-mortar retailer, those broader shifts can have a very real cumulative impact,” she said.

Venus Sakha encountered similar pressures at Boulder Bazaar, the Nepalese and Tibetan gift shop she closed in August after nearly 20 years in business.

“Now, even when we do a discount, nobody wants to buy,” Sakha said. “They like it, but they say, ‘Oh, it’s very hard to afford.’”

John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, said the pressures confronting retailers extend beyond Boulder. Inflation, import tariffs and higher labor costs are raising expenses just as consumers become more cautious.

“The consumer is more hesitant to spend,” Tayer said. “They’re equally as impacted by some of these broader economic conditions.”

“These are challenging times for our local independent businesses,” he added.

What a storefront contributes

For Harem, the stakes extend beyond her own business. Bliss sells work by local artists, makers and designers, so each purchase can support a wider creative network.

“When someone spends money at Bliss, they aren’t just supporting me as the business owner,” she said. “They’re supporting an entire network of local artists, makers, designers and other small businesses whose work fills the store. One purchase can have a ripple effect throughout our local creative community.”

The struggle at Bliss comes as several national brands open or prepare to open in prominent Boulder storefronts. Framebridge, a national custom-framing company, is preparing to open at 1640 Pearl St., formerly home to Pearl Convenience Market. The market relocated after its owners said proposed lease terms at the old location had become too expensive. Its move to 1711 Pearl St. put an end to an experiment in subsidized downtown space for local artists. 

Reformation, an upscale women’s clothing brand, has opened at 1142 Pearl St., while Peak Design, a luxury bag and outdoor gear company, is preparing to open a store in the 1600 block.

Those openings do not, on their own, show that chains are replacing local businesses throughout downtown. Tayer rejects the idea that independent businesses are disappearing.

“Downtown, we’re hovering around 70% or more local, independent businesses, and that’s characteristic of the entire community,” he said. “That provides great color and character to our retail and restaurant sectors, and that makes it really attractive for residents and visitors.”

But Harem worries that each independent store that disappears leaves downtown a little less distinctive.

“You can find the same chain stores in dozens or even hundreds of cities,” she said. “It’s the locally owned shops, restaurants and galleries, what you discover inside them and the experience you have visiting them, that makes you remember you were in Boulder.”

For now, Harem’s immediate goal is to keep Bliss open. Her longer view is about the kind of downtown that will remain for those who come next. 

“I want the next generation of Boulder residents and visitors to experience a downtown filled with businesses that could only exist here,” she added.