Dan Boyce/CPR NewsClothing boutique owner Rebecca Moon is working two days a week at the Colorado Springs bar Shame and Regret to make ends meet.
When 26-year-old fashion designer Rebecca Moon originally drew up the business plan for her high-end boutique clothing store, she anticipated she would still need to keep some bartending shifts to make ends meet.
When businesses shut down, she was laid off from Shame and Regret, the stylish bar in a downtown Colorado Springs alley.
The opening of her clothing store was pushed back to the end of May, and she burned through much of her savings in the interim.
Dan Boyce/CPR NewsRebecca Moon interacts with patrons during the grand opening of Moonbeam Clothiers on May 29th, 2020.
When Shame and Regret finally reopened its doors in June, she said the second source of income was critical. She picked up shifts Monday and Tuesday nights.
Moon acknowledges they’re “kind of the bad money nights,” but that they made the most sense with her boutique’s Wednesday through Saturday schedule.
Moon’s boyfriend, David Frink, works as the beverage director for a complex of three downtown Colorado Springs restaurants, all of which opened last December.
Dan Boyce/CPR NewsClothing boutique owner Rebecca Moon is working two days a week at the Colorado Springs bar Shame and Regret to make ends meet.
“It’s kind of crazy just because everything changes every day,” Frink said.
“We’ve got to start marketing ourselves as ‘to-go’ cocktails, ‘to-go’ bottles of wine, ‘to-go’ whiskey pours, to make this sustainable,” Frink said.
The results have been mixed, and he said he’s not sure the restaurants will last a few more months under current rules.
Meanwhile, Moon recently received some sobering news. Another female-owned clothing store on the same block as Moonbeam Clothiers just shut its doors for good.