Six-year-old Hannah Bowman was on a mission to find every rainbow-colored parrot hidden along Ocean Beach’s main street of shops. Popping in and out of storefronts, she searched shelves and display windows to check off each animal with a funny name tag on her bingo card.
Each stuffed parrot toy — like “Beethoven” at the pet supply store and “Coco” at a boutique — represented one of the 96 local businesses participating in Ocean Beach’s annual Small Business Saturday event and just one way the neighborhood’s business association was trying to maximize foot traffic.
The day of festivities offered free, family fun on a holiday weekend, but more importantly it sought to drive traffic and dollars to local small businesses as a counterpoint to big-box stores and online retailers.
The loot Hannah picked up along the way, like a shiny silver headband at a local boutique, was just a bonus to her treasure hunt. Meanwhile, Hannah’s parents were happy to make a day out of browsing stores and getting lunch in Ocean Beach.
Mom Emily Bowman of Rancho Santa Fe said she was looking for Christmas decorations and already found a couple of handmade seashell ornaments to decorate their fresh tree.
The Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association set up a photo booth on Veteran’s Plaza where passersby could also grab a free tote bag and shoppers who spent a certain amount at nearby businesses could spin a colorful wheel to win gift cards.
To encourage shoppers to shop at local merchants during Shop Small in Ocean Beach, a bingo game was created to reward shoppers with raffle tickets for a chance to win prizes. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“We don’t expect people to not go online and shop,” because everyone is so busy, explained Kristen Keltner, events and program manager for the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association. “We just really want to remind them that local small businesses are here and that you might discover a store that has something that you didn’t even know you needed or that you were going to go shop online for.”
Small Business Saturday was created by American Express in 2010 to encourage people to “shop small” during the holiday season. Since then, it’s become an annual opportunity for businesses to get their name in front of customers.
Throughout the county, small businesses hosted sales or special promotions to take advantage of the one-day festivity post-Black Friday, the kickoff to holiday shopping season.
The Ocean Beach group has put on the annual event for about a decade, though this is the first year since the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020 that the association went back to doing a big interactive installation.
One silver lining to the pandemic was that it showed how much small businesses rely on community support, said Daniel Fitzgerald, regional director for the San Diego & Imperial Small Business Development Center Network, federally funded business centers throughout the county that provide free resources and training for local entrepreneurs.
Fitzgerald said the economic environment has improved not a lot but a little bit for small businesses compared to what it looked like a year ago.
“The struggles that kind of happened after the pandemic were the rise of interest rates and inflation, and both of those have settled down, he said. “And so I think the fact that things have been predictable for a more extended period of time allows businesses to be able to plan.”
Small businesses account for about 46% of employment across the United States and generate roughly 44% of national economic activity, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Emily Bowman and Hannah Bowman, 6, of Rancho Santa Fe, selected a hair comb at the Closet in Ocean Beach on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in San Diego. Bowman and her daughter taking advantage of Shop Small supporting independent local businesses. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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“I’ve worked with big businesses and at the end of the day, their sales are their sales and they know they’re gonna make it,” said Nicolette Montejano, area manager for Creations Boutique on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach. “For us, it’s like we’re fighting all the time to make sure we’re gonna make it. I love to see our community come out together and shop here — it is so nice and it’s so humbling.”
In Ocean Beach in particular, the extra attention is welcome as local businesses and restaurants have noticed a drop in foot traffic due to the closure of the pier. The OB Mainstreet Association estimates that the pier brings in about half a million people to the area each year.
For the past couple of years, the iconic structure has been closed on and off for storm-related repairs. But, as of August, the 58-year-old structure is closed until it is fully replaced with an ambitious new design.
Nicole Leavitt, co-owner of James Gang Company, a local retailer and T-shirt screen printing business, said Small Business Saturday has helped boost sales each year.
James Gang has been around since 1976 and originated the popular Ocean Beach logo — a seagull flying across the letters OB — she said. They sell Ocean Beach-centric T-shirts and sweatshirts at their storefront across the street from Target and work with local businesses to print posters or make custom apparel.
“When you’re going out to a small business, you’re supporting the people that live in your own community, and that’s the biggest thing,” Leavitt said. “You’re not supporting people who are already billionaires.
“You’re supporting people who are trying to live in the most expensive city in the world,” she said with a chuckle.
A 2022 Small Business Economic Impact study co-sponsored by American Express demonstrated a local “multiplier effect” from money spent at local businesses — an additional 48 cents for every dollar spent. That translates to independent retailers generating roughly three times as much local spending compared to shopping at a corporate chain.