Ever since the Thomas Fire cast a pall over the 2017 holiday season for downtown shop owners, they’ve been working hard to build back up and pay off their emergency federal loans, many supported by loyal and new customers, aware of the fire’s disastrous effects. Not all of them made it, but others reported a good start to December.
Black Friday 2019 was the best in years, Paseo Nuevo’s marketing director Mary Lynn Harms-Romo reported, despite a rainy afternoon. “Many retailers reported meeting or exceeding their sales goals for the day,” she said, with large crowds hitting American Eagle’s storewide 40 percent discount and the Nordstrom shoe sale. Among the events to look forward to this December, she said, is the disco party on Thursday at nightfall, complete with ugly sweater contest and snow.
At Folio Press & Paperie, Marlene Bucy, who owns the small stationers with her husband, Frank Bucy, said that the Cave Fire had brought it all back. “What we went through gave me such a greater sensitivity to other disasters, like hurricanes in other parts of the country,” she said. “Just imagine what people go through in disasters like that.” Sevilla Square, the block at Gutierrez and State that Folio shares with D’Angelo’s, Chocolate Maya, and a number of other shops, had twice as many people visiting during Small Business Saturday as the year before, she said. With their store full of cards and gifts, “We’ll see what this December holds,” Bucy said. “It’s looking good so far!”