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Eileen McCormick, manager of Green Apple Books on Clement Street, was appalled to receive an email from her local merchant association promoting San Francisco Small Business Week. main sponsor? Amazon, the giant that helped kill independent bookstores and other small businesses.
It was as tone-deaf as Coca-Cola sponsoring Diabetes Awareness Week or Exxon Oil promoting an event centered around tackling climate change.
Worse? The email invited her to attend an event entitled “How to Start Selling on Your Amazon Store” and an “Amazon Small Business Panel.”
“It’s in incredibly bad taste,” McCormick told me. “That’s insulting. It’s ridiculous.”
The manager of Green Apple Books on Clement Street said he was surprised to learn that San Francisco’s Small Business Week was sponsored by Amazon.
Yaronda M. James/The ChronicleThe San Francisco Chamber of Commerce hosted San Francisco Small Business Week, which concluded on Saturday. A website promoting the week hailed Amazon as a “small business advocate” and posted a sentence explaining its virtues. “Amazon strives to be the most customer-centric company on the planet, the best employer on the planet, and the safest place to work on the planet,” it reads.
yes.
Rodney Fong, president and CEO of the local chamber of commerce, did not respond to a request for comment about the offensive sponsor choice or a question about how much Amazon paid for the perk. A spokeswoman for the chamber said Mr Fong was too busy to speak. This is not the first time a large company has sponsored Small Business Week. Last year’s big sponsor was Facebook’s new name, Meta.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelsey Friedrich said the company is “proud” to have nearly 500,000 small businesses selling products on its site.
“Partnering with local organizations like the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is just one way we can help create new opportunities for the small business community,” Friedrich said.
Of course, Amazon’s sponsorship hasn’t been particularly friendly to people looking to run small businesses in San Francisco in the past, but for those who’ve been made even more difficult by the pandemic these days, it’s an update to the situation. It only makes things worse. A new report released by the city’s Small Business Commission in partnership with San Francisco State University’s School of Economics reveals the challenges facing small business owners, and the challenges go far beyond Amazon.
This massive issue should worry anyone interested in San Francisco and its future. Small businesses like Green Apple are the heart of the city. Saving them is essential to protecting jobs, tax bases, local character and pleasure.
Store manager Eileen McCormick assists customers at Green Apple Books in San Francisco. She said Amazon’s sponsorship of San Francisco’s Small Business Week was “incredibly bad taste.” that’s insulting. ridiculous. “
Yaronda M. James/The ChronicleLast fall, an online survey was conducted in eight languages targeting small business owners in the city, and 802 people responded. Released in a 152-page report compiling the results, as well as responses from one-on-one interviews with some small business owners, the picture is grim.
When asked if they think San Francisco is “generally a good place to run a small business,” 53% said no. Only 22% said yes and the rest were neutral. Black and Middle Eastern small business owners were most likely to say the city was not a good place to run a small business.
87% of respondents say the pandemic has hit their business, with many concerned about inflation, shrinking customer base, inability to hire new employees, supply chain disruptions, dirty roads and lack of parking. mentioned as a matter.
When asked if they have ever struggled with heightened security concerns, 39% said street vandalism had affected their business, and 20% said shoplifting had hit their stores. . Sixty percent said their business had been the victim of some type of crime in the past year, and most said they had been victimized more than once.
When asked what solutions would help them thrive, respondents overwhelmingly said more police to patrol commercial areas on foot or by bicycle and more non-police community ambassadors to monitor street behavior. supported. 56% said street revitalization such as parklets, outdoor dining, slow streets and public art would help.
Small business owners said in interviews that greedy landlords, the city’s strict pandemic rules that have kept businesses closed longer than others, and the cost of living and a shortage of affordable housing make it difficult to hire workers. talked about things. They also cited misery on the streets, high taxes, bureaucracy, lack of police response, and slow recovery in downtown.
A manager at Green Apple Books said Amazon is slowly killing independent small businesses.
Yaronda M. James/The ChronicleAs one small business owner said, “All the benefits of being in San Francisco (tourists, conventions, out-of-the-way residents) virtually disappeared during the pandemic, and it’s hard to come back.”
Another respondent said, “I’ve had three break-ins. It cost me about $20,000 each time. A lot of windows were smashed.”
“As a small business owner, San Francisco breaks my heart,” said another.
Small Business Commission Chairman Cynthia Huey said the report confirms the city can help small businesses by making streets cleaner and safer, making it easier to obtain permits and lowering fees.
“The city could do a better job by taking these ideas more seriously,” she said.
Anyway, in some areas the city is slowly progressing. London Breed Mayor spokesman Geoff Cretan said 3,520 projects had benefited since Proposition H was passed in autumn 2020 to streamline the opening of small businesses. Two of the city’s new small business licensing experts added that they have worked together on 1,087 cases since March 2022.
But Huey pointed out that ordinary San Francisco people also have a responsibility to save small businesses.
“I really need to go out and shop,” she said. “And try different regions.”
In other words, don’t automatically turn to Amazon just because your local hardware store, boutique, or independent bookstore sells the same item. Green Apple Books buyer Vanessa Martini said people living in urban areas such as the Richmond area can certainly avoid the Amazon.
“A lot of our customers feel a sense of learned helplessness,” she told me. “Amazon has told us this is how you shop, how you shop, but it’s not. There are plenty of other options.”
Cora rests on the floor when she visits Green Apple Books, where the store is doing well thanks to local support.
Yaronda M. James/The ChronicleMcCormick said Green Apple is doing well because customers are rallying to support it, but he knows that’s not the case for many small businesses. She and Martini have just returned from their annual reading conference. The conversation there centered, as she put it, on “How do you survive when the Amazons are constantly squeezing your neck and threatening you?”
She said San Francisco residents should remember that if they want their favorite small business to thrive and their neighborhood to thrive, they need to shop locally and avoid Amazon.
“It’s about making conscious decisions to make the people around you and the community around you stronger,” she said. “You don’t have to give in.”
Contact Heather Knight: hknight@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @hknightsf
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