![]() ![]() “There’s not one Vietnamese-American that doesn’t have a family member or close friends working at a nail salon. Nguyen estimates a quarter of California’s nail salons will close while other advocates say more than half won’t make it, leaving the nail industry in the hands of larger chains. Some worry the pandemic might be marking the end of a decades-old, life-sustaining business model for Vietnamese-owned mom-and-pop nail salons. Phone lines at a dozen of other salons were no longer in service, suggesting they may have shut for good. Of 10 nail salons this news organization visited in Santa Clara County, one had permanently shut down, seven remained closed and two were operating with a single technician, including one indoors against health orders. “This is an immigrant, refugee population that’s going to get disproportionately affected.” “There’s not one Vietnamese-American that doesn’t have a family member or close friends working at a nail salon,” said Tam Nguyen, co-founder of Nailing it For America, a coalition formed earlier this year to support health care workers and nail salons. Over a third of salon owners said months ago that they couldn’t pay rent any longer and an additional 29 percent said they’d be out of money in a month, according to a survey of more than 700 salon workers and owners released in June by the center and the collaborative. ![]() In most of the Bay Area, nail salons are not yet allowed to reopen indoors. Nail salons have remained largely closed under state and local health orders since the start of the pandemic. The report was released by the UCLA Labor Center and the nonprofit California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, which advocates for nail salons. For many, outdoor operations aren’t an option.Ībout 70 percent of California’s nail salon workers are Vietnamese-American, according to a 2019 report, and the pandemic is taking a heavy toll on a small business niche that’s been shut for five months now. In most of the Bay Area, as well as Sacramento and Southern California, where cases remain widespread under the state’s new color-coded reopening system, nail salons are not yet allowed to reopen indoors. While most of the state’s businesses have been able to resume some activity, nail salons have remained largely closed under state and local health orders since the start of the pandemic. “I have 22 employees who also have families. “It’s hard to tell how long we can keep up, maybe one month,” said Tran, a first-generation Vietnamese immigrant who lives in San Jose with her husband, two children and three elderly relatives. So have most of the state’s roughly 11,000 other nail salons. ![]() La Orquidea Salon and Spa has been sitting empty ever since on busy North Santa Cruz Ave, Los Gatos. Most went into the nearly $13,500 monthly rent she says she’s been paying for her shuttered business since March, when coronavirus public health orders forced her to close. ![]()
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