How small companies in Los Angeles find it difficult to come back after the fires

• Los Angeles fires have destroyed thousands of structures and times are hard for companies that remain.
• In Malibu, Pasadena and other regions of the County of Los Angeles, the rich were not the only ones affected.
• The owners of small businesses report a slowdown in sales and a drop in pedestrian traffic.

Small businesses find it difficult to get up from the carpet after Los Angeles fires hit them – And some owners ask people to remember that not all the people concerned were wealthy Hollywood stars.

While a lot The shops on the fire paths were destroyedThose who remain standing face their own challenges.

Just in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, who were Devastated by the fire of the palisadesThere was respectively a decrease of 64.7 % and 67.7 % of the number of companies opened the week when fires started from the same week of January from last year. It is according to the data collected by Homebase, a platform of operations for small businesses.

Likewise, Homebase reported that Altadena and Pasadena, who were struck by the Eaton Fireexperienced a decrease of 32.5 % and a decrease of 19.4 % of shops opened for the same week compared to January 2024.

Meanwhile, according to Homebase, small businesses in the Metropolitan region of Los Angeles experienced a decrease of 5.3 % to 8.9 % of the hours worked by employees from January 9 to 13.

Christopher Tompkins, owner of Broad Street Oyster Company, opened his first restaurant in Malibu in 2019 and has since enlarged to add coffee and a glacier next door and three other locations in South California and one in San Francisco.

Barely a few weeks ago, he was still in shock from Franklin’s fire, who ravaged more than 4,000 acres of Malibu in December and forced him to close its doors for the first time in five years, he said.

“It was devastating and so terrifying because everything was so close,” Tompkins told Business Insider. “The fire was on our way. The fire was around the restaurant. Personally, I thought we were finished, I thought everything was gone.”

Then, when the palisades fire broke out two weeks ago, he said that he “could not believe it”.

The fire of Palisades, which started on January 7, burned 23,000 acres and destroys more than 6,000 structures while simultaneous fires raged in other parts of Los Angeles and the counties of Ventura.

The fire of Palisades forced Tompkins to close its Malibu site again, which is normally opened 365 days a year, for more than two weeks.

Tompkins said that he had finally recovered all public services, such as gas and internet, last weekend, and now he does everything he can to reopen this week at limited hours and with a “team skeleton”.

Even if his building has not been hit by the fire, its prolonged closure has already had harmful consequences, he said.

Tompkins estimates the loss of income of the Malibu site between 600,000 and $ 750,000, not to mention unemployed staff.

He said that out of 55 crew members there, he managed to find work only for less than 10 elsewhere.

“Malibu is a huge income generator for our company. It is our most popular site. It is our first site. It is the one that is most important to me,” he told Bi.

And while he tries to get back on his feet, Tompkins wants people to know that the rich are not the only ones to be affected by devastating fires.

“I do not want it to be the story for the rest of Malibu and for the rest of the Pacific Palisades because I personally know some of my customers who have supported me from the first day and who live in Pacific Palisades. Not these rich people on the beach, “said Tompkins.

They are not all celebrities who lost their house worth several million dollars in firessaid Tompkins. They are also ordinary people-“and they don’t know what they are going to do next,” he said. “They have no other property where to go.”

People’s lives depends on many small businesses that line the Pacific Coast Highway, he said, and small businesses always need customers to stay afloat.

This feeling was shared by Amara Barroeta, owner of a Venezuelan coffee, called Amara’s Café, in Pasadena.

After the fire of Eaton devastated certain parts of Pasadena and neighboring Altadena, Barroeta said that her business was in difficulty.

Since its reopening after three days of closing due to fires, Barroeta said that her coffee had only been about 20 % of her usual activity and that consequently, she had to reduce the working hours of her staff to 60 or 70 % of their time. Typical schedule.

And Barroeta said that she was worried about the fate of catering professionals who may not have the same access to government aid and other resources, especially if they are new in the country or if they live outside the traditional network.

THE Migration policy Institute conducted A 2019 study believing that in the County of Los Angeles, the population of unauthorized salaried workers was around 600,000 people – and around 15 % of them work in the catering, accommodation, accommodation sectors arts, entertainment and leisure.

It is not only the companies located near the areas affected by fires that suffer from the consequences of what has become one of the The most expensive natural disasters in the history of the United States. City companies, even those most distant from the evacuation zones, have reported a slowdown.

Jack Biebel, owner of Ggiata Delicatessen, told Business Insider that pedestrian traffic in the five sites of his grocery store – in Melrose Hill, West Hollywood, Venice, Highland Park and Studio City – was down since the start of fires.

Biebel said that it had to close its five sites for seven working days in total the week when the fires started had a considerable impact on his business.

Its location in Highland Park was closed for a few days due to power outages. And during the first days of its reopening, it closed the dining room, which can normally accommodate 30 or 40 customers, to make it a donation collection center for people affected by fires.

More than a dozen owners and restaurant managers throughout the city said to Eater They found a drop in their activity during the week following the fires. For example, Mark Nechols, Managing Director of N/SOTO in Mid-City, told the point of sale that he had seen about twice as many guests as usual, while Bret Thompson, chef and partner of Pez Coastal Kitchen in Pasadena, said her restaurant had lost. 85% of his activity in one week following fires.

With thousands of houses and businesses destroyed or damaged, losses due to Los Angeles fires increase. Accuweather estimates that total damage could reach $ 275 billion, and Goldman Sachs predicts that the total amount of damage could reach $ 275 billion. fires will remove between 15,000 and 25,000 jobs taken from the January employment report of the Ministry of Labor.

But there could be help for those who find it difficult to get back on their feet. For example, the United States Small businesses Approved $ 52 million in loans in the event of a disaster, the mayor of Los Angeles said Karen Bass said on Thursday. And The county launched Both a rescue fund for small businesses and a workers’ rescue fund offering subsidies to eligible candidates.

In addition to the official support channels, many companies – including Ggiata’s, Broad Street Oyster Company, Amara’s Café and countless others – have also taken on them to offer local support for their communities, in particular by collecting donations, organizing Fundraising, giving food to the first stakeholders and helping neighbors to sail in the Bureaucracy of the Rescue.