Business & Tech

An Uncertain Future For Ming Quong Shop

Rumors of move have sparked a Facebook page for concerned customers of popular North Main Street gift store.

The Ming Quong store, a fixture on North Main Street for more than a generation, is "authentic and unique and a necessity in this world of sameness."

So says a poster in the "Save Ming Quong" Facebook public event, which gives voice to customers upset by rumors that is going to be dislodged from its perch.

The shop has been in the heart of Walnut Creek's downtown since 1969. It sells sterling silver, clothing and gift items "with an Asian influence," said co-owner Jim Wyman. The smell of incense fills the narrow shop.

Wyman said he's heard the rumors, but nothing definitive. "I don't know if it's a sealed deal or is it still up in the air?' he said. "Nothing has been presented to our property manager." The lease runs out in September, Wyman said.

Patch has a call into owner Jack Dudum to ask for comment on the situation.

If the Ming Quong lease is ended, the store will try to relocate somewhere close in the north downtown area, Wyman said. He added that some customers are talking up a move to available storefronts in Lafayette.

At one time, Ming Quong was a Walnut Creek coffee shop, as outlined in a recent piece by Grace Gardner on the Las Lomas (High School) Page.

On a literary note

Ming Quong co-owner Nona Mock Wyman has written another memoir, Bamboo Women, that will be out later this spring from China Books. Her first one, Chopstick Childhood, made a splash in the Bay Area literary world in 1999. It told the story of Wyman's childhood at the Ming Quong orphanage in San Francisco. Ming Quong means "radiant light."


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