A small local business that has stood on Retro Row for 12 years is at risk of closing its store front and has harnessed the power of community to find support amidst a widespread economic down turn.
Native Sol, is a lifestyle store focused on highlighting the work of BIPOC through its curated collection of wares and community events, hosting small popup vendors, community-led workshops and collaborating with other businesses on Retro Row.
“This is home, this is is my neighborhood, I just sleep somewhere else,” Tyrone Maximum, co-founder of Native Sol said.
He and his partner May Salem began Native Sol in the early 2000’s first opening up shop on Broadway before making the move to Retro Row.
There they worked together with other small businesses on the street to develop what eventually became Retro Row’s Fourth Fridays, a monthly event where store owners work with other small vendors to create a street style market, complete with food stalls and live music.
These monthly events help bring more foot traffic to the street, and help spread the word about brick-and-mortar retailers that people may not have entered into prior.
Yet after years of calling Retro Row home, Native Sol now risks having to shutter it’s storefront.
“For us small businesses, the sales we make everyday count more.” Maximum said.
Small businesses are often the first impacted when there is an economic down turn. Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers in particular are the first to see a decline in revenue as people begin to cut out non-essential expenditures.
While it is difficult to combat an economic downturn, businesses must find strategies that will help them stay afloat.
For Native Sol, that strategy has been to harness the years of established good will within Retro Row and its customer base to ask people for support, whether that be monetary or simply spreading the word about what the store has to offer to others, in hopes of driving more customers to shop.
This type of word-of-mouth support is something other businesses have found to be helpful, even as online advertising continues to grow and a key way for people to support the local business they’ve come to love over the years.
Barbara D’Alessandro, owner of Hot Stuff, an LGBTQ novelty gift shop located on Broadway, has seen various ups and downs over the 40 years that the shop has been open.
D’Alessandro, emphasized the need for a well-established community relationship between businesses and consumers, where customers feel like these storefronts offer more than just a transactional exchange.
“We just have to know our customer and try to fulfil their needs as much as possible and just remind them that ‘hey, we’re here for what you need’,” D’Alessandro said.
Businesses like Native Sol and Hot Stuff, that have made Long Beach their home for years, are part of the diverse community that makes the city a cultural hotspot, the support they need is only possible when communities mobilize to maintain them.
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