Retailers are upset as Amazon sponsors San Francisco's Small Business Week, calling it insulting.

San Francisco retailers are outraged by Amazon’s sponsorship of S.F.’s Small Business Week

When Eileen McCormick, the store manager of Green Apple Books on Clement Street, saw an email from her local merchants association about San Francisco’s Small Business Week, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The main sponsor was Amazon, the giant corporation that has contributed to the demise of independent bookstores and other small businesses.

It was as absurd as having Coca-Cola support Diabetes Awareness Week or Exxon Oil endorse an event about tackling climate change.

To make matters worse, the email invited her to join events such as “How to Start Selling in Amazon’s Store” and “Amazon Small Business Panel.”

“It’s extremely insensitive,” McCormick told me. “It’s offensive. It’s ludicrous.”

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is the organizer of San Francisco Small Business Week, which ended Saturday. The website for the week praises Amazon as a “small business champion” with a paragraph that lists its alleged merits. “Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer and Earth’s safest place to work,” it says.

Sure.

Rodney Fong, president and CEO of the local chamber, did not respond to requests for comment on the inappropriate choice of sponsor or answer questions about how much Amazon paid for the opportunity. A spokesperson for the chamber said Fong was too busy to talk. It’s not the first time big businesses have sponsored Small Business Week; a major sponsor last year was Meta, the new name for Facebook.

Kelsey Friedrich, a spokesperson for Amazon, said the company is “proud” to have nearly 500,000 small and medium-size businesses selling products on its site.

“Partnering with local organizations like the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is just one of the ways we help create new opportunities for the small business community,” Friedrich said.

Of course, Amazon’s sponsorship is just the tip of the iceberg for people trying to run small businesses in San Francisco, a city that has never been very supportive of them, but has lately seen even more pandemic-related difficulties. A new report from the city’s small business commission with help from San Francisco State University’s economics department reveals the challenges facing small business owners — and they go far beyond Amazon.

The huge issues should matter to anyone who cares about San Francisco and its future. Small businesses like Green Apple are the soul of the city. Saving them is vital to maintaining jobs, a tax base, neighborhood character — and happiness.

The city’s small business owners were invited to take an online survey in eight languages last fall, and 802 people answered. A 152-page report with the results — plus feedback from some small business owners who were interviewed individually — has been published, and the situation is bleak.

Asked whether they think San Francisco “is generally a good place to own a small business,” 53% said no. Only 22% said yes, and the rest were neutral. Black and Middle Eastern small business owners were the most likely to say the city isn’t a good place to own a small business.

How S.F. is seen as a place for small businesses

Respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement, “San Francisco is generally a good place to own a small business.”

Eighty-seven percent of respondents said the pandemic had harmed their business, with many mentioning inflation, a dwindling customer base, the difficulty of hiring new employees, supply chain disruptions, dirty streets and a lack of parking among other issues.

Asked whether they’ve faced increased public safety concerns, 39% said disruptive street behavior has impacted their business and 20% said their stores have been targeted by shoplifting. Sixty percent said their businesses have been affected by some kind of crime in the past year, and most of those said they’d been affected more than once.

Asked what solutions could help them succeed, respondents strongly supported more police walking or biking in commercial neighborhoods and more non-police community ambassadors overseeing street behavior. Fifty-six percent said street activation — like parklets, outdoor dining, slow streets and public art — would help.

Opinions on police foot/bike patrols in commercial neighborhoods

In interviews, small business owners talked about greedy landlords, the city’s strict pandemic rules that kept businesses shut longer than elsewhere and the cost of living and lack of affordable housing making it hard to find workers. They also mentioned street misery, high taxes, bureaucracy, lack of police response and the slow recovery of downtown.

The city’s small business owners were asked to take an online survey in eight languages last fall, and 802 people answered. A 152-page report with the results — plus feedback from some small business owners who were interviewed one-on-one — has been published, and the situation is dire.

Asked whether they think San Francisco “is generally a good place to own a small business,” 53% said no. Only 22% said yes, and the rest were neutral. Black and Middle Eastern small business owners were the most likely to say the city isn’t a good place to own a small business.

How S.F. is seen as a place for small businesses

Respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement, “San Francisco is generally a good place to own a small business.”

Eighty-seven percent of respondents said the pandemic had damaged their business, with many mentioning inflation, a shrinking customer base, the challenge of hiring new employees, supply chain problems, dirty streets and a lack of parking among other issues.

Asked whether they’ve faced increased public safety concerns, 39% said disruptive street behavior has affected their business and 20% said their stores have been targeted by shoplifting. Sixty percent said their businesses have been affected by some kind of crime in the past year, and most of those said they’d been affected more than once.

Asked what solutions could help them succeed, respondents strongly supported more police walking or biking in commercial neighborhoods and more non-police community ambassadors overseeing street behavior. Fifty-six percent said street activation — like parklets, outdoor dining, slow streets and public art — would help.

Opinions on police foot/bike patrols in commercial neighborhoods

In interviews, small business owners talked about greedy landlords, the city’s strict pandemic rules that kept businesses closed longer than elsewhere and the cost of living and lack of affordable housing making it hard to find workers. They also mentioned street misery, high taxes, bureaucracy, lack of police response and the slow recovery of downtown.

“All of the benefits of being in San Francisco (tourists, conventions, lots of residents who like going out) virtually disappeared during the pandemic and are slow to return,” one small business owner said.

Another respondent said, “We’ve been broken into three times. One time cost us almost $20,000. We’ve had numerous windows broken.”

“As a small business owner, I’m heartbroken by San Francisco,” still another said.

Cynthia Huie, president of the small business commission, said the report confirmed the city can help small businesses by making its streets cleaner and safer, making it easier to get permits and cutting fees.

“The city could do a better job at taking those thoughts more seriously,” she said.

Slowly, the city is making progress — in some areas, anyway. Jeff Cretan, spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, said that since the passage of Prop. H to streamline the opening of small businesses in the fall of 2020, 3,520 projects have benefited. Two new small business permit specialists in the city have together worked on 1,087 cases since March 2022, he added.

But Huie pointed out the job of saving our small businesses falls to regular San Franciscans too.

“We just really need to come out and shop,” she said. “And try different neighborhoods.”

In other words, don’t automatically turn to Amazon when your local hardware store, boutique or independent bookstore offers the same goods. Vanessa Martini, a buyer at Green Apple Books, said people living in urban neighborhoods such as the Richmond District can definitely avoid Amazon.

“It’s a learned helplessness in a lot of customers,” she told me. “Amazon has taught them that this is how you shop and buy, but it’s not. There are so many other options.”

McCormick said Green Apple is doing well because its customers have rallied to support it, but she knows that’s not true for a lot of small businesses. She and Martini just got back from an annual book conference where much of the chatter centered on, as she put it, “How do you survive when Amazon is breathing down your neck and threatening you at every moment?”

She said San Franciscans should remember that if they want their favorite small businesses to make it and their neighborhoods 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.”