Nonprofit profile: Buying holiday gifts in Gilroy helps fund city

Visit Gilroy, downtown business association urge shoppers to support local businesses

---

By Marty Cheek

In past years, Black Friday found thousands of shoppers wandering through the Gilroy Premium Outlets enjoying a shopping excursion in search for the perfect holiday gifts for friends and loved ones. This year on Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving, the scene at the stores was a bit more subdued.

The customers were respectful of the COVID-19 pandemic by wearing masks, sanitizing their hands and socially distancing, said Jane Howard, the executive director of Visit Gilroy, which has its office at the Outlets. The parking lots had plenty of vehicles but not like in prior years. People stood in line for 30 minutes or more to step into the more desired stores, she said.

Customers were made up of a mix of locals as well as the broader Bay Area, Howard said of the Black Friday crowd.

“People were all taking it (COVID-19) seriously,” she said. “I was watching the management team here at the Outlets and they were making sure they were doing everything they can do to make sure of people’s safety, and kudos to them. Small business owners are doing the same.”

The 2020 holiday season will see many Gilroy retail stores and restaurants struggling because of the threat to public health from the pandemic. Gilroy is a hot-spot of coronavirus cases in the county, with 2,538 confirmed cases as of Friday, Dec. 4, a number which makes up more than 4.5 percent of the city’s population.

To help encourage local shopping, Visit Gilroy launched the week of Thanksgiving its “Stay Loyal. Stay Local. Support Gilroy” marketing campaign to encourage people to purchase goods from local stores and visit restaurants and wineries for gift items. The campaign was originally done during the summer and proved successful in its mission to encourage Gilroy residents to help the local economy by spending their dollars here.

“This is totally new for Visit Gilroy. Usually we’re promoting to the outside world, but we’re using some advertising dollars that I would normally have used for events,” Howard said. “Obviously, no events are occurring so I moved those dollars into a targeted campaign that involves social media, Google ad words and Google display ads. It’s targeted to Gilroyans and it is in English and Spanish.”

The campaign will run until the end of December, she said. The marketing message is targeted on making purchases in three broad areas of business: retail shopping, restaurants and wineries.

With the shopping aspect, the campaign promotes not just the many chain stores at the Premium Outlets but the unique shops in downtown Gilroy and throughout the rest of the city. Among the stores that get attention on a list on Visit Gilroy’s website are IVORI Boutique, Predator’s Archery, and the Nimble Thimble.

“It’s promoting those unusual places that you might not usually think of for gifts and even our antique shops for one-of-a-kind gifts,” Howard said.

Restaurants in Gilroy are also promoted in the shop local campaign. Gift-givers can purchase gift cards for friends and family to enjoy a meal from many of the eateries in the downtown district and throughout the city. The Visit Gilroy website has been revamped to provide the most current information on what delivery systems the restaurants are using and special menus for the holidays.

“We’re just re-emphasizing about enjoying take-out and delivery and, weather permitting, outdoor dining,” Howard said. “The new county (public health) guidelines on capacity comes into play, but it’s really about reminding our locals to take the night off and support one of our local restaurants.”

South Valley wineries have also had to deal with the challenges of COVID-19 and restrictions on their customer service because of public health guidelines. Howard asked the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley association how Visit Gilroy can best support their businesses

“They said the best thing we can do is remind our locals about giving the gift of wine from Santa Clara Valley,” she said. “The wineries are willing to deliver. You can buy gift packages. The best way to do that is to make a phone call to the wineries and ask what they suggest for your price range. It’s all about the gift of wines from Santa Clara Valley.”

Buying local not only helps family-run businesses stay in business, it also contributes to the quality of life in a city with the sales tax revenue that is generated with each sale. This goes into the general fund for the city and pays for public services such as police and fire departments and parks and recreation, Howard said.

“Every city in this state is going to be struggling for economic recovery from COVID,” she said. “(Buying local) can get at least some sales tax coming into our city to make sure we have the services that are obviously needed to operate our city. It’s all about those sales tax being generated here.”

Online retail is expected to be higher than in usual holiday periods because of people’s concerns of catching the coronavirus. Adobe, a research firm that followed online sales at 80 of the top 100 U.S. retailers, reported American consumers spent $9 billion online on Black Friday this year. That’s up 21.6 percent compared to a year ago. Holiday shoppers spent $10.8 billion on Nov. 30, Cyber Monday. This rose 15.1 percent from 2019, setting a record for the largest online shopping day ever for American consumers, according to Adobe.

Howard said that while online shopping provides conveniences, she personally prefers to go out and experience what she’s purchasing. She encourages other Gilroyans to do the same while safely wearing a mask and social distancing. The shopping experience can be more fun as we interact with other local residents, she said.

“I just think you need to have that message for our locals that if you’re comfortable doing that there’s nothing like us being out there and experiencing what we’ve got to offer here on a real basis and not just online,” she said. “Not to say not using online, but it’s another level of experience.”

Many of the downtown shops and restaurants encouraged local shopping through the Small Business Saturday national event held Nov. 28, said Gary Walton, president of the Gilroy Downtown Business Association. The nonprofit sponsored a “Find Gil and Roy” contest where participants could go to various merchants and find cartoon drawings of the garlic-themed couple from Gilroy Gardens. The shops were Ashford’s Heirlooms, BookBuyers Used Books & Media, Artemex, Gallery 1202, Leedo Art & Frame, Predators Archery and The Neon Exchange. Based on the Where’s Waldo? contest, participants had a passport stamped at the various stores when they discovered the characters.

Since COVID-19 restrictions started in mid-March, two restaurants and one business have closed. This including the diner Scott’s in the Gilroy Bowl, which shut down in mid-November when the owner decided to retire.

“We’re somewhat fortunate for downtown because we have such a diversity of businesses. We have more local serving businesses than tourism type stuff,” Walton said. “If you’re vacuum breaks down or you need bags, we have a place for that. If you’re shoes need to be repaired, we have a place for that. And COVID really doesn’t affect those things.”

Some restaurants are doing better than prior to COVID because they were set up for outdoor dining, such as Station 55, a Mexican restaurant on Fifth Street. The owner worked with the downtown association and the city to install a parklet for people to enjoy a meal outside. Three or four other restaurants are going to soon get parklets outside, Walton said. He expects a few new brew pubs will be opening eventually in the downtown.

“A lot of restaurants are family-owned businesses where the family works it,” he said. “They’re more resilient than chain restaurants are because everybody can kind of cut back as a team, and it’s a little harder to do than when you’re just an employee.”

Cities really understand the value of local businesses to the local economy and encourage residents to go to frequent shops and restaurants more, especially during the holidays, he said.

“To me this is a wakeup call. If you look at the decline of sales taxes that all cities are going through, it’s important to support your community,” Walton said. “It would be a real sad state of affairs if the only man standing is Amazon. It’s so impersonal to go online and buy something. It’s different to buy something from your community from someone you know, someone who might have coached your kid in soccer or contributed to things. There’s a variety of reasons to support local businesses.”