Downtown Los Angeles party supply business helps meet demand for PPE

LOS ANGELES -- JJ Ribbon, a small family business in downtown Los Angeles, was suddenly at a standstill when the pandemic hit.

With gatherings and most festivities on hold or canceled, co-owner Wendy Wu decided to reach out to her surrounding business partners to inquire about acquiring PPE.

"My husband works at Kaiser Permanente as a family physician. My family friends they need masks, they need it urgently," said Wu.

Soon after JJ Ribbon began donating, then pivoted to selling face masks, shields, and even gowns that fall under the PPE category. Now, they are supplying people across the country and the neighboring communities with PPE during the pandemic.

"My family, they did ribbons. So, we manufactured and produced ribbons from our factories and brought it here to the United States. One of the first three companies bringing in ribbons," she said.

Seeing the need for PPE firsthand, Wu reached out to her manufacturing connections in the party supply industry.

That's when her new business took off.