Every Shelf in Denver

Ora works beyond restaurants. We tasked our agent with finding retailers with online inventory. This is our sample analysis of the 261 stores whose full catalogs Ora extracted. Only four show up on a delivery app.

The numbers

We found 54,862 businesses in Denver's zip codes. Most are not retail businesses: restaurants, dentists, schools, nail salons, national chains. Ora reviewed clear candidates and selected a sample of independent retailers: 1,196 stores.

Then Ora went shelf-level. Of those 1,196 stores, 399 publish what they sell on their own website. It extracted the full catalog for 261 of them: 196,153 products.

What Denver's independent retailers sell

The 1,196 stores group into roughly 20 categories:

• Everyday: liquor and wine, convenience, pharmacy and medical supply
• Style: apparel and footwear, jewelry, beauty supply, eyewear
• Home: furniture and mattress, home goods, hardware and tools, art and framing, florists
• Hobby and gifts: gifts, books and toys, games and collectibles, craft and party, bike shops
• Tech and auto: electronics and phone repair, auto parts
• Local commerce: print and sign shops

One store, up close

The Perfect Petal, 3600 W 32nd Ave, in the Highlands. Google calls it a florist. It is on zero delivery platforms.

Its website lists 268 products. A standard bridal bouquet at $220. A standing spray at $325. Then the flowers end: botanical candles at $70, wild rose bath soak at $32, a silicone rainbow stacker for toddlers at $33, loose-leaf tea at $24, a jigsaw puzzle at $42, an Italian dessert cookbook at $42.

The label says florist. The shelf says gift shop. Category labels tell you where a store sits. Catalogs tell you what it can sell.

There are 260 more stores like this on the map below. Click any dot.