Small Business Saturday
Shoppers support recovering downtown
EL CENTRO — In spirit of Small Business Saturday, five businesses in downtown El Centro joined forces to offer shoppers a unique experience.
Strangers West, Odds & Ends, Tiendique, Bujwah and Discordia Records hosted Downtown Dollars, a multi-store shopping event that ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
For every $50 spent, shoppers earned $5 in Downtown Dollars, which were redeemable at any of the five participating stores. Along with specific discounts each store had, the event also featured $5 off any $30 purchase from any of the five downtown businesses.
“We just got together and decided to do something extra for Small Business Saturday,” explained Odds and Ends Owner Kayla Dotson. “We’re just trying to help support each other and get people to visit all the different businesses that we have.”
Though the holiday, Small Business Saturday was created in 2010, it was the first year in existence for the local event, which came to fruition under the leadership of Jessica Delgado, one of the owners of Strangers West.
The nationwide shopping holiday, which is held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, encourages shoppers to support local businesses in their community.
“We figured if we put on something where several of us joined together, then maybe we could encourage more people to come down and visit all of our shops today,” said Dotson, who believes the event helped attract more shoppers than previous years.
Along with a 20-percent discount on all furniture, Dotson also hosted about eight local vendors to set up inside her store, creating a mini-market that offered an array of makeup, clothing and art pieces to Odds & Ends customers.
After hearing about the indoor market through the store’s social media, Imperial resident Mona Ruiz wanted to see what was being offered.
“My favorite part of it was knowing that all these vendors are local and people are purchasing something from them. It just felt nice to contribute to these local vendors,” mentioned Ruiz on the vendors inside O&D.
Ruiz and her two daughters then ended up spending the day browsing through the five downtown businesses.
“We shopped around at both Odds & Ends and Bujwah and then went to eat at Strangers,” said Ruiz. “And then my friend Liz (Rodriguez) owns Tiendiques so we went to visit her.”
The Imperial resident enjoyed seeing all the five stores collaborate for the Downtown Dollars event.
“It’s good for business for them and it kind of gives us an incentive to come out and see what we can find,” explained Ruiz.
The shopping holiday and the local event was a welcoming experience for Jacob Zavala, owner of El Dorado Printing, which acts as the parent company to Bujwah.
“You see different heads walking down the street that you don’t normally see, you see more cars on the street,” noticed Zavala. “I got a lot of different type of customers that don’t normally come in here, but they’re still people from the Valley that want to support Small Business Saturday.” The event between the five stores was important as it brought in an increased number of potential customers to the city’s downtown, said Zavala.
“We haven’t been like flooding with business, but for a dying downtown that’s slowly being revived, it’s good,” said the Bujwah owner. “Considering the circumstances and everything, it’s really good.”
Zavala believes his brand carries a unique sense of pride, attracting customers to purchase and wear the brand’s merchandise as opposed to shopping at other major retail stores.
“They’re getting something that’s not so corporate,” stated Zavala. “It’s different, it’s original and it’s something a little more thought out. When you get a Bujwah T-shirt, it’s a lot different than just getting something like a Volcom or RVCA, but it’s still got that same appeal.”
The Bujwah owner hopes the Downtown Dollars event is a stepping stone in the right direction towards bringing back business into the city’s downtown.
“We do have a goodsized downtown and there’s a lot of potential in this downtown, but it’s going to take a lot of work,” detailed Zavala. “Everyone says they’ve been trying to restore it for years, but I’m hoping and praying that this is going to be the time where things change and we bring back that revitalization.”