And then there were two — two remaining cosmetic shops in downtown Key West that utilize aggressive sales tactics to offer free samples of high-priced skin care products and often shock customers with thousands of dollars in credit card charges.
The Key West Ripoff Rapid Response Team, an all-volunteer consumer watchdog group that had been picketing the now-empty Oro Gold for more than two years, this week celebrated the permanent closure of Oro Gold, 518 Duval St.
“The shop is being cleared and the owners are leaving town,” said Bruce Mitchell, cofounder of the ripoff squad that most recently had picketed the shop from December until the city closed non-essential businesses and banned social gatherings in the second week of March.
“Oro Gold had piled up a record number of city code violations, consumer complaints and negative media coverage over the last five years under several different owners,” said ripoff squad cofounder Bruce Mitchell.
“The business and its owners were cited and paid fines for numerous violations,” Mitchell said. “Oro Gold is the only Key West cosmetic shop to ever have its business license suspended, not once, but twice by two different Key West city managers. Besides flaunting city code and fleecing unsuspecting visitors, the shop harassed pedestrians with aggressive soliciting,” Mitchell said, adding that shop owners and employees also harassed volunteer picketer Shirlee Ezmirly, a 92-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who protested in front of the shop every Tuesday regardless of the weather.
“I want them gone,” Ezmirly said, who faced verbal assaults and foul language from Oro Gold owners and employees.
Similar cosmetic shops operate in cities all over the world, drawing community opposition — and attention from international law enforcement to their aggressive sales tactics, exorbitant pricing and questionable business practices.
Only two such shops now remain in Key West — Ooh La La and Francesca, both in the 100 block of Duval Street and both with a history of city code violations.
“The business has at least nine code complaints on file, but is best remembered for the time it charged a senior citizen more than $3,000 for products she didn’t want to buy, and the store manager walked her all the way back to her room at the Curry Mansion with two big bags of the stuff,” Mitchell said. “The alert guesthouse owner, Phil Amsterdam, intervened, called the police and the three of them returned to the shop to demand a full refund for the victim. Fortunately, they were successful.”
Across the street, Francesca, which has had two previous names, was where the ripoff team’s protests started in March 2015.
“A woman with mental illness allegedly was charged $40,000 for a huge cache of cosmetics,” Mitchell said. “The woman’s husband called the police, we commenced picketing, and the money was quickly returned. A few of us continued picketing for another 19 days before the business agreed to a 30-day return policy and five other better business practices.”
Mitchell said the business has changed names, but continues to have a “poor record” of consumer complaints and code violations.
“Francesca is perhaps best remembered for the shameful incident that took place in December 2018, when employees soliciting pedestrians belittled and taunted a young man with cerebral palsy and his mother,” he said. “The pair, on vacation from New York, were heartbroken, hurt and upset enough to file a complaint.”
The Key West Ripoff Rapid Response Team is now focusing its efforts on convincing the owners of the commercial buildings to stop leasing to such businesses.
For more information find the Key West Ripoff Rapid Response Team on Facebook.
