The recession has had its impact on small businesses in Hayward
The recession has impacted many cities and businesses in the past year. The Bay Area, in particular, was significantly hit by the recession due to the closure of the NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.) plant in Fremont. The closure of NUMMI was one year ago and led to many jobs being lost throughout the region.
“As of June of this year, the city of Hayward has hit 12.4 in unemployment while the city of Alameda has hit 11.1,” said Sally Porfido, Economic Development Specialist for the City of Hayward.
“The economic downturn is making a slow recovery, which means small and big businesses are being affected.”
Mervyn’s Headquarters is one of those businesses. The headquarters building, which is located on Foothill Boulevard, had 1,200 workers who were eventually let go.
“The headquarters had a huge impact on the downtown area, being that it was one the city’s biggest businesses,” said Porfido.
Smaller businesses are experiencing a hard time as well. Along Foothill Boulevard and B Street are many buildings that were once filled with customers but are currently empty.
“It’s hard for small businesses because we can’t compete with stores like Wal-Mart,” said Yvonne Giannotti, employee at Tina’s Awards and Embroidery on B Street “Less people are buying the store’s price and they want quantity more than quality. The owners of these buildings can no longer pay the rent which causes them to close.
“It’s hard for smaller businesses and the owners of those businesses to have capital and to take out an equity loan for their business. There is limited access on loans and tight standards for those loans,” said Porfido.
Those who are unemployed have discovered that they can’t spend as much money as they used to. The money that was previously spent on luxury items must be spent on necessities. It has become detrimental for those working for these small businesses who also have families.
“I’ve received 30 percent fewer calls for service and revenue since the recession hit,” said Raymond Fields, manager and technician of Special Touch Carpet Care.
“Business was a lot different when I first started in 2006. I had a larger clientele.”
Although it seems that things are getting worse for the city and the economy, there will be an improvement slowly but surely.
“Revitalization programs will be added to the city, especially in the Foothill Boulevard area,” said Porfido.
“Slowly, businesses will come back to the area as soon as unemployment gets slower.”