Black-owned business in Las Vegas sees support amid nationwide movement

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    LAS VEGAS, NV (KVVU) — Some black-owned businesses are seeing a surge in sales as supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement look for ways to help their communities.

One Las Vegas business said they’re seeing some of that support in the valley too. “I’m the entrepreneur, the CEO of Chily Barkers,” La’rell Wysinger said. The 13-year-old middle schooler got some help from his mom, starting the business in January.

Their best seller is a chili cupcake – chili, cheese and all the toppings, poured over freshly baked cornbread.

“Everybody loves cornbread and everybody loves chili,” La’rell’s mother Tatiana Easley said.

“I want to have different Chily Barkers trucks so they can go around places to different states,” La’rell said.

The coronavirus pandemic put those plans on pause.

“We started off doing deliveries, just personally, going door-to-door, dropping off stuff with masks,” Easley said.

Then nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd changed the conversation for the mother-son duo.

“I want him to understand you can still have a business during a pandemic, you can still have a business during a riot,” Easley said. “Don’t let everything around you influence what’s going on, what you want to do.”

Through social media and word of mouth, they’ve seen other black-owned valley businesses lean on each other over the past few weeks.

“I think a lot of black-owned businesses are grasping to find other black owned businesses so that we can support to grow for each other,” Easley said. “It has pushed our communities to kind of embrace and connect more and help each other more.”

La’rell said the Las Vegas community is stepping up, too.

“We have had some people just come by and say hey we’re happy to see a young entrepreneur out here, a black kid, doing your thing,” he said. “Some people just bring donations or just come by and support.”

“It means something for everyone to stick together, definitely during this time,” Easley said. “It has not been a bad year – it’s just a bad time. But the support has been really good. And I just feel, everybody keep the hope, stay focused. Don’t let it die after the riots, let’s make sure we keep supporting [each other].”

Chily Barkers just got added to the online delivery service GrubHub.

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