With the Franklin Fire, Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire and the various other fires that tore throughout the greater Los Angeles area, local Malibu businesses have been struggling to get customers through the door.
Local businesses, such as Malibu Village Books and Vitamin Barn, have seen a decrease in customers since the fires that swept across Southern California, their respective managers and owners said. These businesses, especially Malibu Village Books, are calling for the Malibu community to support local businesses in the aftermath of the fire devastation.
“Our business does really rely on that day-to-day foot traffic to make ends meet,” Emma Carroll, Malibu Village Books supervisor, said. “Currently we’re making less than one-fifth of the revenue that we would normally make.”
These local businesses, such as Malibu Village Books, shared how these fires impacted their stores, as well as ways the community and city council can help these businesses bounce back.
Impacted Businesses
Malibu Village Books lost the entire holiday shopping season due to the Franklin Fire. This season makes up around one-third of the profit for the entire year, Carroll said.
“Losing that holiday shopping buzz hit us really hard,” Carroll said.
The store was only reopened for three days after the Franklin fire before the Palisades fire hit. This fire caused the store to shut down for an additional two weeks, Carroll said.
Even with the closures the store endured, they still had to pay for the entire month’s rent, Carroll said.
The store has reopened for seven days a week. However, the lasting Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) road closure and restricted access is hurting business, Carroll said.
“Our main visibility comes from PCH and having that closed it really hurts us,” Carroll said.
The landlords have not given the store an adequate deferment on rent, causing the business to continue to suffer, Carroll said.
“We’re really struggling to just pay our bills and pay our rent and we’re just struggling to be here given the current situation,” Carroll said.
Vitamin Barn owner Gene Arnold kept his store open during the Woolsey Fire and was the first store to reopen after the fires earlier this year, however, he said he believes many local businesses will shut down after these recent fires.
“Don’t be surprised if a lot of these places leave and don’t blame ‘em cause the landlords are disattached,” Arnold said.
Many businesses went in for small business loans, but will eventually have to pay this money back, Malibu Councilmember Haylynn Conrad said.
“As nice as that [small business loans] is, it’s also on the backend troubling,” Conrad said.
City Council Initiatives
Malibu City Council passed an initiative to purchase lunches for Malibu staff members for around a one to three month period, Conrad said.
“It was something to help stimulate businesses locally to get them through this dark period,” Conrad said.
However, Conrad said she doesn’t think this will help significantly long-term.
“It won’t help somebody survive forever,” Conrad said. “If they don’t have traction and traffic coming in and out there’s only so much we can do.”
Assistant City Manager Joseph Toney shared a new Los Angeles County initiative during the March 10 city council meeting, which should benefit small business owners in Malibu.
L.A. County voted for an eviction moratorium which provides temporary eviction protection for workers and small business owners who demonstrate financial hardship due to the fires, Toney said.
The protection period provided by this moratorium ends July 31.
Ways to Help
With a lack of tourism due to road closures, Conrad said she encourages people to try their best to shop locally.
However, Conrad said she recognizes the difficulty of this task given the small Malibu community.
“You have to realize Malibu is a small town,” Conrad said. “People also can’t afford to eat out every single meal.”
However, there are certain incentives for those who support these businesses.
The GoLocalMalibu (@golocalmalibuMalibu Pacific Church started the Instagram page as a way to encourage support for local restaurants, according to their Instagram page.
The page posted a bingo card of local restaurants, including Vitamin Barn, and encouraged players to take part in playing blackout bingo.
The page sells local restaurant merchandise. The church then buys gift cards to these local restaurants using the profits from the merchandise and hands them out as prizes for those playing their blackout bingo game.
They also gave out some of this merchandise as prizes for the bingo game.
Community members can support Malibu Village Books in several other ways since they are not a part of the restaurant bingo.
Malibu Village Books welcomes people to stop in or ship books from their store, Carroll said.
Carroll said she encourages the use of the store’s special ordering system, where they can get any book they do not have in stock ordered for customers.
Bookshop.org is a platform similar to Amazon but helps support indie bookstores, like Malibu Village Books, Carroll said.
Libro.fm also supports indie bookstores, but instead of offering physical copies, provides digital audiobooks, Carroll said.
Malibu Village Books is starting a GoFundMe page to help support their store as well, Carroll said.
Those wishing to help can also follow their Instagram account and remain an active part of the Malibu community.
“We [Malibu Village Books] definitely want to stay,” Carroll said. “So please, help us.”
_______________
Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Mackenzie Krause via email: mackenzie.krause@pepperdine.edu
