What’s The Cost of Business

What’s the cost of business? A store owner in Los Angeles can tell you it’s 20 grand — just to remain open.


As reported by The Los Angeles Times, businesswoman Natali Mishali — proprietor of the DTLA Smoke Shop — claims she’s had to shell out more than $20,000 in legal fees in the battle to open her store amid a pandemic-inspired government grip.

To be clear, despite the store’s dealing with tobacco products, it also sells snacks, groceries, and cleaning supplies.


Therefore, in 30-year-old Natali’s eyes, it’s an essential business. LA County’s March 19th Safer at Home Order for Control of COVID-19 indicated essential establishments include those selling groceries and cleaning products. Multiple times, police officers came into her store to ensure she was in compliance. But then things changed.
From the Times:

On April 3, Mishali, 30, became one of the first four people criminally charged with violating orders meant to slow the spread of the virus. The other businesses included another smoke shop, a shoe store and a discount electronics retailer.

She believes a different store name could’ve saved her:

“If the name of my business was Downtown LA Convenience Store and Smoke Shop,” Mishali says, she thinks she would not have been criminally charged. “But…we only have smoke shop in our name.”

Given that she hawked food items such as Pop Tarts, cereal, cookies, soup, soft drinks, chips, paper towels, bleach, and all-purpose cleaner, she fought for her rights. During every inspection:

“They would come in, either leave the ordinance with me or tell me I had to shut down and I kept showing them that the shop was following the mayor’s order. I was told I could continue to operate my business and then they would show up again and drop the same order the next day.”