{"id":89051,"date":"2025-07-24T16:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89051\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:21:09","slug":"how-one-entrepreneur-is-lovebombing-south-and-west-side-stores-to-support-local-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89051\/","title":{"rendered":"How One Entrepreneur Is \u2018Lovebombing\u2019 South And West Side Stores To Support Local Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEVERLY \u2014 Being a small business owner in Chicago can be fraught with challenges \u2014 but local entrepreneur Keewa Nurullah hopes her new shopping initiative, CIRCULATE, will make it all a little easier.<\/p>\n

Every month, Nurullah chooses a local store to host a shopping event, setting the vibe with music and family-friendly libations. The events are akin to \u201crent parties\u201d thrown by Black people in big cities after the Great Migration to help neighbors raise money to pay rent, Nurullah said.<\/p>\n

The idea is to encourage \u201cintentional shopping\u201d and get neighbors to support local shops, serving as a \u201clove bomb for a small business,\u201d Nurullah said.<\/p>\n

CIRCULATE events are held at the end of the month, which is also intentional as that is when bills are due, Nurullah said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically in Chicago for retail, the worst months are the J months: January, June and July,\u201d Nurullah said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s out doing stuff and going to the fests and enjoying nature and going to the lakefront, and people will walk in and out of stores and actually not really buy anything, just kind of enjoying the experience\u201d<\/p>\n

But the cost to small business owners of staffing their stores or vending at street festivals is often too high to be sustainable, which is where CIRCULATE comes in, Nurullah said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really great, especially this time during the summer, to put an additional spotlight \u2026 on these businesses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The wife and mom is no stranger to the struggle. Nurullah closed her South Loop children\u2019s boutique, Kido Chicago, this fall after six years.<\/a> Though she\u2019s grateful for the experience of running a brick-and-mortar store, she said there are things she wished she\u2019d known when it comes to marketing metrics and foot traffic.<\/p>\n

Nurullah is focusing her CIRCULATE effort on the South and West sides, where small shop owners may not have the marketing budget to promote themselves. But a store doesn\u2019t have to be in dire straits to participate.<\/p>\n

Nurullah puts the word out on social media weeks ahead of the event, posting short clips of the store of the month to give people an idea of what to expect and a chance to learn about the proprietor. She uses email lists \u2014 her own and one from the featured store \u2014 to send out blasts.<\/p>\n

The inaugural CIRCULATE event was held last month at the Beverly Phono Mart. Patrons thumbed through rows of records as a group of children colored in the corner and a DJ spun tunes.<\/p>\n

Co-owner Mallory McClaire saw an impressive boost in foot traffic and revenue from the event, with a 280 percent increase in transactions, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSundays are our shortest day \u2026 and we\u2019re not cranking out hundreds of transactions a day,\u201d McClaire said. \u201cSo seeing 10 or 20 more people coming through can triple the number of transactions that we would typically see in a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business has been steady in the weeks since, on par with the shop\u2019s typical summer traffic, McClaire said.<\/p>\n

McClaire said she and her husband and co-owner, Chantala Kommanivanh, are grateful to Nurullah for the assistance. Nurullah\u2019s energy was infectious, and she did everything to ensure the day went smoothly, McClaire said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we had to do was show up,\u201d McClaire said. \u201cSometimes, any hesitation you have around things like this is like, \u2018Do I have time for it?\u2019 But she just made it so easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly the point, Nurullah said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do with CIRCULATE is connect economic activism with consumer education, using what I\u2019ve learned as a business owner to share what I know about our own individual responsibility to our communities,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The next CIRCULATE event is 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Haji Healing Salon<\/a>, 4448 S. Cottage Grove Ave. in Bronzeville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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