These stores sell skin cream to tourists. Protesters outside are sounding an alarm
Shirlee Ezmirly has lived in Key West for 40 years, long enough to recall an entirely different Key West than what exists today.
Ezmirly, a Rhode Island native, doesn’t like one side of modern-day Key West down on famous Duval Street.
That’s the cosmetic cream shops, places where the employees promise their products will produce younger-looking skin and age-defying feats.
“I hate it when people get ripped off. It makes Key West look bad,” said Ezmirly, 92, as she held a white sign with black lettering that read, “Rip Off Shop,” with an arrow pointed at Orogold Cosmetics, 518 Duval St.
“And it’s not a bad place, it’s a wonderful place to live and to visit but not with things like that,” she said.
Duval Street, Key West’s main tourist strip, has become a battleground between a local consumer advocate group and the owners of the cosmetic-cream shops that have come under fire the last few years over allegations of price-gouging and aggressive sales tactics.
The protesters and the city have gotten complaints from consumers that the shops have taken them for a ride after swiping their credit cards and refusing to give refunds.
Ezmirly is one of the most enthusiastic volunteers who protests at the shops.
The Key West Rip-Off Rapid Response Team, formed five years ago by locals Bruce Mitchell and Tevis Wernicoff and embraced by Ezmirly and others, has become a common sight outside these shops for nearly two years.
The shop owners declined to comment.
“We are going after this Orogold and this is the start of our eighth week,” Mitchell said. “We picket every day except Saturday,” when the shops are closed.
And they’ve claimed victory after several shops have gone under, and last year, when the city suspended Orogold from operating for 10 days.
“When we started there were four, in 2015,” Mitchell said. “It went as high as 11. Then it came down. Some of them we closed as a direct result as our picketing. It’s down to three now.
“This town exists on tourism,” Wernicoff said. “When one tourist gets ripped off they tell 100 people. We’re a consumer protection group and we want tourists to have a good experience in town. We need a good reputation.”
City leaders have met with protesters and shop owners several times.
“We strengthened our ordinances,” Mayor Teri Johnston said. “You have to have all of your prices easily readable and you have to make sure if someone is touching you they have a license. We beefed up several different areas of our ordinance. We’ve done what we can as far as ordinances are concerned.”
Johnston said the arguing on both sides could be curbed.
“It’s both sides,” she said. I’ve been down there a number of times, I’ve walked past. Before I was mayor, I was accosted with some nasty comments as I walked past. We could be better stewards of Key West on both sides.”
But the street protests have led to criminal complaints and reports of minor violence.
Orogold co- owner Zohar Alon has called the protesters racist, and Alon has held a sign that reads, “Nazis,’” saying his Israeli heritage is being attacked by the protesters.
Ezmirly, who is Jewish, also has been met with ugliness from Orogold employees.
She’s been cursed, taunted and told she stinks. Not long ago, an Orogold employee put a dog bowl in front of her.
“They put money in it to look like she was begging,” Mitchell said.
The shop owners weren’t talking.
“Speak to my lawyer,” said Nir Chen, an owner of the Orogold shop on Duval. Street. The lawyer didn’t return phone calls for comment.
The ongoing fight on Duval Street has led to City Hall showdowns and cases in criminal court.
“They’ve gotten away with murder these last few years,” Mitchell said. “They’ve been warned they’ve had their license suspended.”
In January 2019, Mitchell was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly slapping a shop worker, Liron Alon, 25, on her face and arm. He denied he hit Alon, who is Zohar Alon’s sister.
Prosecutors dropped the case in December despite police saying video taken by Alon clearly shows Mitchell making contact with her.
“I produced six witnesses saying I didn’t hit anyone,” Mitchell said.
The reason Mitchell got in the woman’s face?
She was holding up a photo of Mitchell’s dead son and he was trying to rip it away from her, he told police, according to the incident report.
“They got it off the Internet,” he said. “I did try and grab it but I wasn’t fast enough. They had a tape of me lunging forward and trying to grab the piece of paper. It did look like I was trying to hit somebody but I never touched anybody.”
The store employees still taunt him over his son’s death. “Did he kill himself over you?” they jeer, Mitchell said.\
Now, store co-owner Zohar Alon, 31, is facing a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly spitting in the face of 69-year-old Charles Albert Wagner, of Key West, on Jan. 23.
Wagner showed police his sunglasses, which had saliva on them. Alon denies spitting.
At least one Key West police officer has tired of the back-and-forth on Duval Street.
“This is an ongoing issue with both sides trying to intimidate and antagonize each other with increasingly childish behavior from both parties, which escalates daily,” wrote Officer Scott Standerwick in his report.
The protests won’t stop anytime soon, Mitchell said.
“We’re planning on staying out there until they close,” Mitchell said. “We believe Key West is better than this. I don’t think they belong in Key West.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 3:04 PM with the headline "These stores sell skin cream to tourists. Protesters outside are sounding an alarm."
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