Notorious Rip-Off Cosmetic Shop Oro Gold Closes on Duval Street
Celebrating with Shirlee will have to wait
Oro Gold, 518 Duval Street, Key West’s most notorious Rip-Off cosmetic shop, has permanently closed. The shop is currently being cleared, and the owners are leaving town. 
 
Shirlee Izmirly, the 92-year-old consumer advocate and sidewalk cosmetic shop protester, will have to wait for a celebration with her friends from The Key West Rip-Off Rapid Response Team. Shirlee is a longtime Key West resident and U.S. Navy veteran who feels strongly about the Rip-Off cosmetics shops, “I want them gone,” declared Shirlee.
 
 Shirlee and the Rip-Off Team picketed Oro Gold for more than two years, most recently from December until the city shut down due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Shirlee protested every Tuesday afternoon regardless of the weather.
 
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. The business and its owners were cited and paid fines for numerous violations. 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. Different owners signed and then violated consent agreements with the Rip-Off Team promising to obey city code and comply with better businesses practices.
Finally, the owners and their employees verbally assaulted Shirlee, other picketers, and pedestrians with foul, crude and profane language while the picketers were exercising their right to peacefully protest.
A party celebrating the closing of Oro Gold will be held once health conditions have improved and it’s both safe legal to have a large, joyous gathering. All friends and supporters will be invited to celebrate with Shirlee and the whole team.
 
With the closing of Oro Gold only two Rip-Off cosmetic shops remain. Both are in the 100 block of Duval Street with OohLaLa , at 120 Duval St, and Francesca, at 119 Duval Street. Both have long histories:
OohLaLa, 118 Duval, formerly Tresor Rare, has had the same owner but has changed names. The owner’s name is Eliran Damri. The business rents from businessman and lawyer Michael Halpern. Halpern owns the Southernmost House and spoke publicly against the Rip-Off Team and our protesting at a commissioners meeting March 5, 2019. Without revealing the fact he collects rent from this Rip-Off shop. Halpern stated, “Within 2019, when their leases run out, there won’t be any more cosmetic shops.” Halpern wanted to give them time “to wrap up their business.” It’s unclear if OohLaLa is still “wrapping up business” or if Halpern will continue to rent to this shop. They were still open in mid-March when Key West businesses all shut down.
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. The alert innkeeper 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.  
 
Francesca, formerly Kristal’s Cosmetics, formerly Adore Organic Innovation, at 119 Duval, is where our protests against the Rip-Off shops began back in March 2015. A women with mental illness was charged $40,000 for a huge cache of cosmetics. 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.
The business has changed names but continues to have a poor record of consumer complaints and code violations with each new owner. The building is owned by Charles Ittah of Plantation Florida. 
Francesca is perhaps most remembered for the shocking and shameful incident that took place in December of 2018. Employees soliciting pedestrians belittled and taunted a young man with cerebral palsy and his mother. The pair, on vacation from New York, were heart-broken, hurt and upset enough to file a complaint.
So these are the two remaining shops for now. 
 
The Key West Rip-Off Rapid Response is an all volunteer group of consumer advocates. 
 
For more information
Bruce Mitchell
740-707-3634
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