Struggling Businesses Yearn for Community Support

There isn’t much time for Masoud Soudani to talk while he’s working in the he owns on Kiefer Boulevard. He sweats as he bounces between filling a pitcher of beer for a table of customers and slicing a fresh pizza for the lunch buffet.

But despite his busy appearance, his business is struggling.

“I am trying to survive,” said Soudani, who has owned the pizza franchise . “I need Rosemont people to help me out more.”

Straw Hat Pizza is one of the many small businesses in Rosemont that are on shaky ground. Local businesses , but business owners say that's because they are strapped for cash.

Soudani, who said he’s the longest-surviving tenant in the shopping center, said he used to receive much more support from the community. Huge little league parties packed every local pizza restaurant, and business was booming.

Now, his donations to local schools and other community organizations often go unnoticed. Customers, hurting in their own right, “want everything for free,” he said.

“Rosemont changed,” Soudani said. “They are not the same neighborhood.”

It’s a similar story across the parking lot at the local , which once donated $2,500 to relief efforts in Haiti but now can barely keep the lights on.

“If you don’t have money, how can you donate?” manager Shawn Singh asked.

Singh said the store doesn’t receive much support from community members, who mistakenly think big box hardware stores always offer cheaper prices.

He pauses to help a customer, who pays for his purchase by casually dumping a pocketful of change onto the counter and walking away once he’s sure it will cover the total.

Small businesses rely on community

Dennis Tootelian, a professor of marketing and the director for the Center for Small Business at California State University, Sacramento, said a strong sense of community can go a long way toward helping small businesses.

“There’s no question that small businesses generally need the support of a more localized core more than larger businesses do,” Tootelian said. “A sense of community helps businesses.”

And businesses help each other by providing choices and making an area more attractive to consumers, he said.

“As an area gets depressed, people start shopping outside the area,” he said.

Danny Yi, who has owned the restaurant on Bradshaw Road for 16 years, said he was attracted to the area by cheap rent and the proximity to multiple office complexes.

“It got better every year, but the last couple years have been kind of [tough] because of the economy,” said Yi, a Rosemont resident.

To stay afloat, he’s had to lay off one employee and pick up about 10 hours of extra work each week. He’s confident his business will survive, but he’s worried about the effect of other business closures in the area.

“There’s no traffic here at nighttime,” he said. “All the tenants here–they’re closing like crazy. Half of them are empty.”

But it's not all bad for local businesses. The Folsom Boulevard , and the . And no matter how barren an area becomes, Tootelian said good businesses can still survive.

"If [it is] a strong business … that will overcome a lot of the potential probems of an area," he said.