Business Owners Ponder Whether to Stay : Rebuilding: Although some proprietors are reluctant to return to ravaged areas, most say they have invested too much to leave the community.

Many business owners in riot-trashed areas of Los Angeles returned to work on Sunday--and despite their losses, resolved to stay in a city whose violence struck them so viscerally.

Of the owners who showed up for work on Sunday, some said they were reluctant to return to what once were normal business hours. Others, more fearful or pessimistic, said they would not reopen at all.

Yet many, from the east edges of the rioting in Huntington Park to the beleaguered shops of Koreatown, said they had invested too much of their money and lives to quit.

“Right now, it’s not comfortable,” said Peter Kim, owner of a grocery store at Florence and Seville avenues, as his radio blared with Spanish-language music. “This area is dangerous. A lot of gangs. But I’ve got to stay anyhow.”

Outside his store, in county territory adjoining South Los Angeles, National Guard troops and police kept motorists from driving farther west on Florence. Inside, Kim, of Korean ancestry, spoke Spanish with his customers.

His neighbors in what is the predominantly Latino neighborhood, at the southwest fringe of Huntington Park, attributed the market’s survival to the fact that Central American products are advertised on Kim’s windows. The store suffered only a broken window.

A few doors west, Andres Montes, a native of of Culiacancito, Mexico, was not so fortunate. Until the looters came Thursday night, Montes had operated Vanessa’s Sports Shoes, in the 2600 block of East Florence Avenue.

Montes pointed to a door lock ripped up by bullets shot into the back of his shoe store. As he picked his way through the debris-strewn display room, broken chunks of glass crunched beneath his feet.

“I’m afraid to open again,” Montes, 35, said, with hurt and anger in his voice. “It’s better to look for a job than (to) own my own business.”

Montes and neighboring shopkeepers described how, on Thursday evening, he had fought with his own handgun to drive off waves of looters--some of them with guns, others tossing gasoline-filled bottles.

“All this,” said Montes, who visited a doctor on Sunday morning because of stress, “is crazy. I’ve never seen something like this.”

All around Montes, the seemingly bizarre dichotomy of leapfrog looting was quite apparent. Around the corner, at Pacific Boulevard and Walnut Street, the ashes of a Tuxedo Junction shop still smoldered, its owner nowhere to be seen. A Payless Shoes store, across the street on Pacific, was boarded shut, its operator also gone. Customers bought banana leaves for tamales and other specialty products at the unscathed Mi Viejo San Juan market.

A few miles northwest, in Koreatown, hundreds of store owners on Saturday and Sunday flocked to Radio Korea USA, KAZN-AM. In packed, stuffy rooms, accountants and lawyers volunteered their time to advise the merchants how they may apply for loans or other government assistance.

“Lack of information is the biggest obstacle to rebuilding,” said Steve Kang, one of the accountants. “Many of these people lost their business records in fires and don’t know how much inventory they had. A lot of them are basically shell-shocked. Many of them have to make payments to vendors, but have no money to pay them.”

Yet despite the violence, most store owners said they want to rebuild. Some simply love their adopted city of Los Angeles. For many, such as Don Myung and his wife, Oh Ju, there is simply no choice.

The Myungs lived in Los Angeles for 20 years and owned Trojan Liquor store near USC for a good part of that time. It was looted and set afire during the riots.

“I want to rebuild, but don’t have a choice anyway,” Don said. “My foundation is Los Angeles. This is my whole life except for my wife and kid. As soon as we can we’ll build up what we can. It’s better than working for someone else.”

Jin Ho Lee isn’t as confident. The owner of Delhi Market in Compton may return to Korea if he can’t get necessary financing from government or private sources.

He will meet with other victims of what many Korean-Americans are calling the “4/29th” riots to get more information to prepare for their future. But he said that friends are heading to Carmel and San Jose, where they hope to start anew.

Further, in the heart of Koreatown, store owners met informally to discuss their future, survey the damage and give each other support.

One gun store remained open and sold firearms and ammunition despite government restrictions. “We have to protect ourselves for the future,” an employee said. “The police were supposed to be there, but they left us unprotected. I am just trying to help my community.”

California Market, located at Western Avenue and Sixth Street, bought about 25 guns to protect its store from looters Friday night, manager Kihan Kin said.

Normally open 24 hours a day, Kin said the supermarket will lose about $250,000 in business from closing down early and frightened hoppers. Other merchants met with each other in closed restaurants to discuss plans on how to rebuild their community, if at all.

Lucky China restaurant, across the street from a burned mini-mall, lived up to its name and was not damaged from the rioting. Inside, several store owners met, shared their frustration, and provided support for one another.

“We’re meeting informally, talking, trying to make up our minds on whether to rebuild Koreatown,” said Hyung Han, a store owner whose shop was unharmed by the rioting. “So many Korean people have worked hard for 10 to 15 years and it was all gone overnight. I’m a lucky one. But we are not sure to rebuild. There still are dangers.”

In South Central Los Angeles--where some street vendors hawked T-shirts engraved, “I support Rodney G. King”--representatives of Boys Markets said their employees would bag and distribute more than 250,000 sacks of groceries today for people affected by the crisis. The food giveaway will be conducted between 10 a.m. and noon at three Boys Markets and the First AME Church on South Harvard Street. Boys Markets involved are at 1651 East 103rd St., 1731 W. Manchester Ave. and 3300 W. Slauson Ave. An executive of Atlantic Richfield Co.--which closed 26 locations because of fires and looting--estimated that his company would spend up to $500,000 to rebuild stations and convenience stores in ravaged neighborhoods.

“We’ll rebuild every one of them unless there’s some kind of lease prohibition or permit problem,” said George H. Babikian, president of ARCO’s consumer products division. “South Central Los Angeles is an important part of our business plan, and we don’t intend to abandon it . . . These were good stations last week, there’s no reason they won’t be good stations next week.”

Times staff writer Kathy M. Kristof contributed to this report.