After closing State Street storefront, Plum Goods planning transition to next chapter
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - After nearly 10 full years on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara, Plum Goods was forced to close its doors earlier this month, as the COVID-19 crisis continues to rattle local small businesses.
The store sold jewelry, art, books, clothing and other gifts. For several years in a row, the Santa Barbara Independent recognized the store as the best gift shop in Santa Barbara.
Owner Amy Cooper and creative director Fabian Ojeda first announced the news on Instagram, saying they are creating a new Plum Goods website to "support and celebrate our favorite artists and bring you things you love to give."
“We really feel like we set out to create an amazing, one-of-a-kind experience, and we did that,” Cooper said. “There wasn’t that existing already [downtown]: a fair-trade, handmade store… So I thought, ‘this is the perfect way to combine what I love and care about, which is beautiful goods made with integrity, in a market where it’s missing that.’”
Cooper says she has goods filling up her garage and is currently going through them with her daughter, preparing to put them on the website.
According to Cooper, there were visitors from other states and countries in her store up until March 13, the day she decided to temporarily close the store. Soon after, the heartbreaking decision was made to close for good.
“It was a very, very hard decision to let the physical space go, but there really was no other answer in our situation at this time, based on financials,” she said.
Cooper says her business, along with many other local small businesses, barely made it through the economic hit brought on by the Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides. The COVID-19 crisis became just too much of a financial hurdle to handle.
Because of the recent economic affects of those disasters and the current lack of tourism during the pandemic, Cooper says, Santa Barbara's economy has a "very particular weak spot" during this time.
“I do think we’ll see more closures in the next three to six months because it’s such a tough, tough situation,” says Cooper, who is a member of the Downtown Organization board and Mayor Cathy Murillo’s business advisory task force. “But there’s a lot of people getting really creative and entrepreneurial and sharing resources and ideas, especially on all these tasks force. So I have a lot of hope for Santa Barbara.”
Cooper says even during a pandemic and its economic fallout, consumers have a lot of power to help the small businesses and restaurants they want to remain open.
“Every single dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in,” she said. “It’s not a guilty ‘You have to shop local, You should shop local.’ It’s not that. It’s really choosing what kind of town or world you want to live in. And you, as the buyer, get to make that choice.”
In terms of potential solutions, Cooper lowering rents across the city is not a simple solution, with several property owners and landlords involved. She believes property owners charging small businesses a percentage of sales each month could be a potential solution during the pandemic.
"I don't really see a way for small business to be moving forward with a big, set rate when everything's so uncertain," she said. "So I want there to be a way where property owners can get some money and businesses can get some money and where everybody's taking a bit of the hit--but it's reasonable--until things return to normal."
