Looters hit popular black-owned business in Buckhead

BUCKHEAD, Ga. - Many of the businesses damaged from the weekend riots that split off from peaceful protests against the death of George Floyd across Atlanta are black-owned.

There are only a handful of black-owned businesses in The Shops at Buckhead. Jimmy Choo, Hermes, and other high-end stores were broken into, but so was Attom.

Placed in the center of the outdoor mall, Attom is the first minority-owned business there.

Like much of Buckhead, it stands boarded up after weekend raids.

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"This could’ve been one of those stores that someone said 'not that store,'" Attom manager Kris Shelby said.

"I don’t know if people know we’re owned by a black man because we don’t put it on the front of the business," Attom owner Zola Dias said. "But this is a very sad day for us."

Attom sells high-end brands like what you’ll find at Saks or Neiman Marcus but well-known celebrities and rappers such as Future come to Attom, not just to support a business owner of color or local Atlanta designers, but because the products sold are unique.

"When we go to fashion week, we make sure to not have the same items [that] the bigger store [buys]," Dias said.

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And if you thought Attom was just a store for those with money, manager Kris Shelby says your wrong: the discounts make luxury accessible.

But the boutique wasn’t immune to the riots.

"To watch it happening and be there and not be able to do anything ... I had such a headache," Shelby said.

"I’m a black man, I'm young, but there is another way to go and protest," Dias said.

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The store now stands empty with not an item left on the shelves as management find themselves torn. Dias tells FOX 5's Alex Whittler the this was the second big blow to business.

The first was the coronavirus. The store was set to reopen from that setback this week.

Now a group of black women has come forward with fundraising efforts for black-owned businesses who are finding themselves a casualty of this wild weekend. To assist with that effort, email abobr2020@gmail.com.