Bay Area store owners celebrate Small Business Saturday

Posted: 11/29/2014 02:31:19 PM PST

Updated: 11/29/2014 02:39:29 PM PST

The big box stores had their Black Friday, but on Saturday it was the turn of small businesses to take the center of the retail stage.

Small Business Saturday, launched in 2010 by American Express, honors the fact that small businesses are the backbone of any community -- the seasoning that adds variety and individuality to neighborhoods in an economy increasingly dominated by big cyberbusinesses, malls and their giant anchor tenants.

They celebrated the day by doing what they do every Saturday -- work.

'We're bakers -- we don't have holidays,' said Jose Landin, who with brothers Melchor and Juan operate East San Jose's Mexico Bakery, which has grown to three bakeries in 15 years of doing business.

Like many small business operators, the Landins offer the personal touch and craft that a couple of generations of artisan baking in neighborhood locations can offer.

'We're rooted in the community,' Jose Landin said. 'And we're bakers -- that's what we know.'

Still, there's economics to consider. 'We have to figure out how to exist in a big market economy,' he said.

On Berkeley's Solano Avenue, Shoes on Solano was offering 15 percent off everything in the store 'to encourage people to shop locally,' said store manager Myranda Eversole-Rose.

'If they (customers) don't want empty storefronts, they have to shop locally,' Eversole-Rose said. 'The local people who live in Berkeley, I don't think they want to see an avenue of empty storefronts, or see only hair salons and restaurants. Without small retail stores like us, that's all Solano Avenue would be.'

Down the street, Ed Mahl was standing in the doorway of Ensler Lighting, a lamps and shades store.

'This is an avenue where people appreciate small stores,' Mahl said. 'People are very willing to spend a little more money not to have to go to a big box store, and I think people realize their money stays local.'

Mahl said he tries to make a positive contribution to the economy elsewhere in the United States, not just locally. 'I try to buy U.S.-made lamp shades instead of those made in China,' Mahl said. 'That contributes to employment in Michigan and Mississippi -- that's where my shades are made.'

While Mahl sold lamps in Berkeley on Saturday and the Landins rolled dough into pastries in East San Jose, Michael and Leslie Shannon were shopping locally in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood.

'We moved to the area on purpose because it had small businesses we could walk to,' Michael Shannon said as he and his wife, Leslie, selected chocolates for a dinner party at a cozy neighborhood store, Mariette Chocolates.

'We'd rather support local businesses,' Leslie Shannon said. 'They offer something unique, rather than a name brand.'

In a world of corporate candy makers, Mariette's proprietor Frank Bejan sells chocolates that are handmade. His Rocky Road even has handmade marshmallows.

'A small business' advantage is that we pay more attention to the customers,' Bejan said. 'It's like the good old days, when everyone knew each other.'

But, he said, it's tough competing with the big boys. 'The big corporations are crushing the small ones,' he said. 'We're trying our best to keep this business running.'

In Campbell, Christopher Citti and his sister, Andreana, were scrambling with a flood of orders for the holidays, including a wedding reception that will be held at the Left Bank restaurant on San Jose's Santana Row.

Citti said their parents started the business 54 years ago. Since then it has grown to three locations -- the others are in San Jose and Santa Clara.

'We're a family business built on service,' he said.

The thing about their family business, he said, is that 'it has the personal touch, from our biggest customers -- Intel, Adobe and the Fairmont Hotel -- down to the individual who wants to decorate their home for Christmas.'

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419 Follow him on http://Twitter.com/petecarey

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