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Months after Baltimore riots, Korean-owned business reopens

July 8, 2015
Teresa Kim, left, with husband Gyun-tae Kim stand inside their newly reopened beauty supply store in Baltimore.

Teresa Kim, left, with husband Gyun-tae Kim stand inside their newly reopened beauty supply store in Baltimore.

Baltimore looters destroyed a Korean-owned beauty supply store.

Seventy-one days ago, Baltimore looters destroyed this Korean-owned beauty supply store.

By The Korea Times Washington, D.C. staff

Seventy-one days after seeing their store destroyed by Baltimore rioters in April, the Korean couple who owns A&M Beauty Supply reopened for business Tuesday.

Gyun-tae Kim, 71, and Teresa Kim, 65, saw more than $300,000 in damages after rioters rampaged small businesses on their block on 913 N. Caroline St., among them shoe, cellphone and clothing stores.

The Kims’ beauty store was left ruined and their storage emptied.

“That sudden disaster had me speechless and doing nothing for a month,” Gyun-tae Kim said.

He said his spirits — and his will to keep going with the store — began to come back with the help of his church’s fundraising effort to help business owners like him and his wife who had seen losses from the riots.

More than 280 businesses were damaged in the riots. Of them, about 40 were Korean-owned.

With $10,000 from the insurance company and $5,000 from the city, which provided the money to conserve affected buildings’ exteriors, the Kims worked to fix up their business.

To avoid additional repair costs upwards of $50,000, the couple carried out repairs themselves and at times enlisted the help of friends.

“It was a lot of work, and I went through a lot of pain, but we’re wanting to start over,” he said.