Many small businesses fill the streets of Downtown Camas. They have a variety of different restaurants, salons, shops, and even yoga studios. For Camas, the downtown area is a popular place to visit, whether it is enjoying a cup of coffee or going to see a movie, downtown always seems to have business. Downtown Camas always has new activities going on, which attracts more business to the shops. Also, as the population grows in Camas, so does the business that the shops and restaurants get. “Sometimes when I go downtown it is packed, and other times it seems very calm; it really is a cool place to just hang out,” explains Avery Gunderson a freshman student at CHS.

Opening a restaurant in a small town can 

be a struggle due to the population and the constant opening and closing of small businesses. But some of the businesses in Camas have come a far way. When first opening a business, many business owners might not expect their business to go downhill, or turn into a success. The Sushi Joint that is located Downtown Camas opened their first restaurant in Washougal; then shortly after that is when they decided to build one in Camas too. “We didn’t expect for it to grow this big, but when it did it definitely overcame the one we have in Washougal,” Paul Le the owner of the successful sushi joint informs. “A small business in a small town can turn into large amounts of the town visiting.”

Many businesses in Camas have a hard time keeping their business strong. Some of the reasons that businesses tend to shut down can include; lack interest, inability to compete with similar businesses, and ever poor management. “Management has always been a big one for a lot of businesses,” Robert Vaghn the son of the owner and also an employee of Kop Chai states. Sometimes the setbacks of these small businesses do not even have anything to do with the management or even the shop, “The wintertime when it was icy and it snowed, but we just worked hard and had to dig the snow.” This is different than it would be in a big city because there would constantly be snow trucks plowing the snow away, versus one truck for the whole town.

Even though with the population of Camas, and some of the setbacks of the businesses, these two restaurants still work hard and they are becoming more successful as Camas grows.  

“I definitely know the business could easily be successful forever you know, everybody loves sushi,” Paul Le says with a smile.