The Little Shop that Could

By: Carolyn K. Huynh

SEATTLE, WA – Growing up in Garden Grove, CA during the 80s’, Huan Vu witnessed the first of what would later become a trilogy of economic recessions in his life.

After recently migrating from Vietnam with his family, he saw his parents scrimp and scrap for pennies and their ideals about the American Dream slowly sour. From 82’ to 87’, he saw all the major department stores begin to shut down and optimism turn into pessimism. The first company that he witnessed to fall was Imagnin, a clothing line – which would later ironically be a coveted label that would Vu would scour for his shop.

When Vu was in his early 20s’, he opened his first shop in Portland, Ore., that’s when the second recession hit. The 9/11 aftermath left him no choice but to close up shop and gamble his next move in Seattle.

For eight years, the little independent vintage shop, VU has been squeezed between Wall of Sound Records and Bauhaus Coffee and Books on Pine St. With its constantly changing bright and quirky window displays filled with shop owner, Huan Vu’s own reconstructed vintage designs – it catches many curious eyes as passerbys pause and stare.

The shop – barely bigger than a studio apartment on Capitol Hill – carries with it an eclectic range of merchandise from Vu’s own in-house design pieces to vintage couture pieces and all the way to obscure jewelry designs from China and Germany.

Within the past year, Huan Vu has been hit with his third economic recession. This time though, he isn’t fresh out of college with a business degree in his pocket. He’s a little bit older and has replaced his BA with a fistful of real-life experiences. With graying hair and looking sharp in a v-neck vintage sweater paired with brown slacks, Vu, now 37 is ready to face this recession head on.

Because this time he thinks he’s going to survive.

For Vu, survival means not having to put up a huge sign on his store window that says: STORE CLOSING, EVERYTHING MUST GO.

“This is real, this recession is very much real,” says Vu. “We are 30-40% behind than where we were last year. Last year has been one of the best years this store has ever done.”

Capitol Hill is a neighborhood that mostly comprises of apartment buildings and independent shops. Home to such famous streets such as Broadway, Pike, and Pine; the Hill has been going through an evident rough patch as the current economic crisis brings small business owners closer and closer to bankruptcy.

However, according to real estate agent, Linda Casse, while small businesses are worried – the market right now is hot. The Hill is no stranger to homeowners. Condo and interests prices are lower than ever. Mortgage rates has gone down significantly. And residents are fully aware of this. In fact, the prices of homes being sold on the Hill are 5.2 percent higher than last April.

“Capitol Hill is having a tough time however, compared to other area’s Cap Hill is seeing more transactions. It is still a very desirable area. Some people could not afford to live here before, and in this market buyers suddenly or should we say finally, find a house or condo in their price range on Cap Hill that they would not have found, two years ago,” says Mrs. Casse. “This is a good time for small business though it may not seem like it. Same for homeowners on Capitol Hill – they should hold on to their property and wait until the market kicks back up. In my opinion, they should also consider buying other property. Strike while the iron is hot.”


Owning and running your own business on one of the busiest streets in Seattle can be considered almost suicidal during these times. Especially when the only means of survival is relying solely on the residents of Capitol Hill as the only source of incoming revenue.

“In this current time, the saying ‘the customer is always right’ is out the window,” says Vu. “It has now become, ‘the customer is my Alpha and Omega; they are my ruler and King’. Without customers, the recession isn’t going to get any better. We need customers.”

Fortunately for VU, the store lives on the Hill. Known for being environmentally conscious, residents of Capitol Hill tend to shop second-hand. But the cons of shopping at VU will leave a black mark on your wallet. Though it may be a vintage shop, it is certainly no Value Village. The clothes are most often hard to find designer pieces and are scoured from all over the nation and the jewelry is handpicked from Vu’s travels to Asia and Europe.

But what about the customers that actually do their shopping at Value Village and Life-Long? Or, what about the people that have joined the simple-living movement and choose to consciously not spend any money on unnecessary items?

“Personally, I think it’s great if people are being thrifty and only buying used,” said Vu. “But mentally, it’s not realistic. People are only doing it for the short-term period to help ease temporary problems. Is it hurting us? Yes, to be frank, it is. But that can’t be helped. I have had to extend our sales and discounts from the usual twice a year up to almost one every month.”

With only two employees running the store, there is no such thing as individualism. The VU employees are all in it together. Instead of letting go of all the employees or cutting their wages to minimum wage to make significant cutbacks – they all find different ways to help lower the costs. For example, dry-cleaners don’t exist in their world. Vu’s washer and dryer in his apartment building works perfectly fine.

“We know the store is in trouble and it is up to us to make sure we don’t close,” says Aubrey Jackson, 20 an employee who has been working there for 8 months. “The store should be making around $5,500 a month, but that’s a very low number. We really should be making around $7,000 a month. For the past few months, we’ve only been able to make around $2,500 a month.”

During this economic downturn, the rate of unemployment on the Hill has also been one of the plethora of reasons affecting local business sales. People walk up and down Pine St. with a stack of resumes and drop them off at almost every business on the sidewalk. About 2-3 people walk in and drop off resumes a week at VU – in fact, it’s not a regular week without people coming in and dropping off resumes or inquiring about available positions.

“I had a girl who just graduated Brown University last year come in asking if there were any openings available at VU,” said Kevin Walker, 17, another VU employee. “I just couldn’t believe it. What’s a girl with an ivy-league degree wanting a job in retail for minimum wage for? Is it really that bad out there?”

It’s a little bit more than scary. Galactic Boutique, another Pine St. popular haunt and only a few doors down from VU, closed its doors after a 3-year run only a few months ago from lack of sales. According to the shop owner’s blog, Karl Fjellstrom, “I remember our first sale was a postcard for 2.95. So small yet so huge… It has taken quite a while to get back on my feet. You’d think that opening and setting up the store was hard work. But tying up all the loose ends was just as if not more stressful. It was so worth it though.”

For Edie’s Shoes (also another independent Pine St. business), the figures are rivaling Vu’s – if not, more or less than his current incoming revenue.

“We’re supposed to make $700 a day,” says Faith Hale, 21 a long-time employee for Edie’s. “I’m going to let you in on a not-so-secret-secret: we’re not doing so hot. So far, we’ve been making $200 a day. And that’s if we’re lucky. We aren’t breaking even and it’s getting costly to even turn on the lights in the store.”

So why even gamble? Why take the risk?

“It’s business. With or without the recession – business is always a gamble. You do it for the chance of making a small impact in your community,” says Vu. “Fortunately for me, my neighborhood [Capitol Hill] was more than welcoming during my first few years when I first opened up shop in Seattle. I trust that they will still show up on my door mat until the end – whenever that may be.”

Vu’s regulars have so far proven their loyalties. One loyal customer, local Capitol Hill resident, art performer and yoga instructor for 8 Limbs Yoga, Lady Krishna, has been shopping at Vu since the beginning.

“I love VU. It’s not about the prices, it’s all about supporting your local independent stores,” says Lady Krishna. “It was the greedy CEOs and evil corporations that made this recession a reality. I love living on Capitol Hill because the people here support local small-time businesses. Hell, we drove out Taco Bell, Jack in the Box and just recently KFC. We know who we want setting up shop here and who we don’t want.”

And it seems that Capitol Hill has done just that.

The Capitol Hill Community Council just recently rallied together in the past few months to pull together and help out struggling businesses – in the most fashionable way imaginable. Local businesses unveiled the “Capitol Hill Discount Dollar” on April 1st in an attempt to stamp out the economic slump from the Hill.

The fake monopoly-esque money features famous Seattle icons as opposed to faces of presidents and can either be taken for 10% off or at face value of a dollar at certain businesses. The “Capitol Hill Discount Dollar” is available on the Capitol Hill Council’s website or at Perfect Copy and Print on Broadway.

According to an article blurb that the P.I. did on the “Discount Dollar”, owner of Hollywood, Jennifer Straight said, “Bring the businesses out. Spend your money locally. Keep'em around. They've been here for years and they deserve every cent of our support.”

Right now the list of businesses that have the coupon taped to their window are a decent amount, but the list continues to expand as more and more businesses join together to create get the residents of Capitol Hill to buy locally and help support them.

Dickens once wrote “It was the best of times, It was the worst of times…” as his opening line for his magnum opus A Tale of Two cities. For someone who has lived through three different recessions, the dot-com boom, 9/11 – and just recently having to make personal sacrifices and switch from his 2-bedroom apartment with a view of Volunteer Park to a much less expensive 1-bedroom apartment with a view of Hillcrest Market – for Huan Vu, having seen his little shop begin in Portland and then survive for 8 years in Seattle this far has been something of a miracle.

Though it may not seem like it, this right now might actually just be the best of times for Vu.

“I was aware of the financial crisis when I was kid, and I’m more than aware of what’s going on now,” says Vu. “But you know what? Sometimes you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Hey, third times the charm, right?”




To find out more on the Capitol Hill Discount Dollar go to: Capitol Hill Community Council