Why Asian-Owned Stores Are Losing Black Customers

Step inside Bee’s Nails in Atlanta, and the energy is electric. At the Black-owned nail shop, packed with Black nail techs and Black consumers getting manicures and pedicures, one customer said the quiet part out loud on Facebook: “It’s crazy that it should have not took another Asian incident for our black businesses to thrive. We should have been did this!”

Propelled by a massive push to boycott Asian-owned shops, Bee’s Nails is one of the Black-owned businesses now flourishing, with absolutely no signs of slowing down. Ms. Bee, the owner and manager of Bee’s Nails, confirmed to The Root on Monday (June 22), “We have seen an uptick” in business since the boycott.

“I have had several customers that came in and said they were coming in because of the protests,” Miss Bee added. The community response has been nothing short of legendary. She told The Root about a customer who purchased five $35 gift cards purely to hand out to total strangers on the street, just to funnel money into her Black-owned business. The sudden influx of customers has her actively hiring a bigger staff just to keep up with the explosive demand.

The catalyst for this economic shift began after Rick Chow, an Asian store owner in South Carolina, was acquitted of murder charges after police said he shot 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton, The Root told you. The verdict triggered swift calls to boycott non-Black, immigrant-owned stores for Black-owned businesses instead.

Related: Meet Princess Jenkins, Owner of Harlem’s The Brownstone

The tension boiled over when a viral video resurfaced of an Asian man who not only mocked a potential boycott but dared Black folks to go through with it. He smugly claimed Black communities would be left with nothing because they rely on “Chinese takeout, the dry cleaners,” and neighborhood “liquor stores.” Black folks took that disrespect personally and decided to take their business elsewhere.

The shift didn’t happen overnight. It’s apparent on all fronts, including their storefronts. Activists protested in front of a Korean-owned beauty supply store in Texas, where sign-holding demonstrators discouraged patrons from walking in and offered Black-owned alternatives to patronize instead, according to reports.

Over in Charlotte, cellphone video showed Missha Beauty store’s manager, identified as Sung Ho Lim, kicking and choking an unidentified Black woman whom he accused of stealing $3.99 fake eyelashes. Outraged protesters swarmed the storefront immediately after.

Now, the boycott of non-Black-owned stores is booming in real time. One TikTok account recently celebrated two Asian-owned nail salons being “empty AF” after allegations of discrimination. Those empty seats are a goldmine for Black creators and business owners.

In response, Black entrepreneurs are flooding timelines to promote their own brands, rallying the community, and turning decades of systemic retail discrimination into Black-owned revenue.

Leading the charge is Pastor Jamal Bryant, who shared the video of the Asian commentator on Instagram, asking his one million followers, “Y’all wanna test his theory?” after they said, “they don’t need our money and that we can’t survive without them!” The Black community took that dare. Now, long lines at places like Bee’s Nails are proving them dead wrong—something one TikToker said she’s been doing.

“I really hope that the [national boycott] is being taken seriously, because I’ve been doing this. Some of us have always walked the walk, talked the talk,” The Rich Benbo said on TikTok.

@therichbenbo

Standing in solidarity with South Carolina and in remembrance of Cyrus Carmack-Belton. There has long been tension between segments of the Black community and some Asian-owned businesses operating in Black neighborhoods. Many Black consumers feel that while their dollars are welcomed, they themselves are often treated with suspicion, disrespect, or indifference. Those perceptions whether experienced through personal interactions, community stories, or broader patterns have created deep mistrust that cannot simply be dismissed. The death of Cyrus Carmack-Belton reignited those frustrations and forced many people to ask difficult questions about accountability, power, and the relationship between businesses and the communities that sustain them. A community has every right to decide where it spends its money. If Black consumers believe that certain businesses do not respect, invest in, or stand with Black communities, they have every right to withdraw their economic support. Boycotts have always been a legitimate form of protest and self-determination. In honor of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, I support the right of Black communities to organize, speak out, and make intentional choices about where their dollars go. #cyrus #CyrusCarmackBelton #boycott #boycottasianbusinesses #supportblackbusiness

♬ original sound – The Rich Benbo

“I live in Camden, NJ where for all my life, Asians had a choke hold on restaurants and beauty stores,” one X user wrote. “Within the last year, black owed beauty stores and restaurants have popped up and blew them out the water.”

I live in Camden, NJ where for all my life, Asians had a choke hold on restaurants and beauty stores. Within the last year, black owed beauty stores and restaurants have popped up and blew them out the water. We will support if it’s there! Tha banks just gotta ease up

— Its Not That Bad⚡️🌍⚡️ (@locNsocks) June 16, 2026

Although there is no hard data on whether Asian-owned businesses are plunging, one TikToker showed a huge, Asian-owned beauty supply store completely empty on a Saturday, with signs boasting 30% off their products. “Why is that? Because we are not up in there, y’all,” she suspected.

But after Black businesses cash those checks, they will need an uncomfortable reality check: keeping the Black dollar in the community is easier said than done. Suddenly, Black-owned shops are facing an overwhelming surge in demand—and the systemic hurdles are real. Decades of banks denying capital to Black entrepreneurs mean many of these businesses are fighting to scale overnight. Rather than temporary boycotts based on emotion, they will have to survive the rush, and the hype must turn into long-term, sustained investment to meet demand.

Behind the doors of Asian-owned beauty supply stores, owners must now face how they treat their consumers, or else. The days of dominating a multi-billion-dollar Black market without respecting its people are over. The national boycott has evolved into a cultural reckoning, forcing non-Black owners into the hot seat and demanding a total overhaul of hostile loss-prevention tactics that treat everyday paying customers like criminal suspects.

For decades, outside owners held the keys to the beauty industry in Black neighborhoods—but the culture just changed the locks.