The Abridged version:
- Two businesses in downtown Auburn recently announced closures, with a third one expecting to shut its doors in the coming months.
- Businesses and shoppers have contended with a changing culture and new pressures in the last few years, including financial challenges for shoppers and shop owners, changing customer habits and more.
- Still, many shops continue to have strong community support, while local officials look to embrace change and new ways of doing business.
Dowtown Auburn is changing, and locals are taking note.
Many shop owners have seen the downtown streets attract a healthy stream of foot traffic and customers looking to shop local. But amid rising costs of operations, fluctuating consumer behavior, rent troubles and competition from online retail services like Amazon, some shops are feeling the pressure.
“I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and it’s way more work than it used to be,” Jason Watson, owner of Milo Snow and Skate, said. “I think for some people, sometimes the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Running a small business in California is hard.”
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Since the start of August, two downtown businesses, Martin Mattox and Little Bird Mercantile, have announced their closures. A third shop, Cherry Records, is expected to close downtown in the coming months.
Little Bird, a vintage antique shop, closed due to the owners retiring. The owners of Martin Mattox, which sells clothing and home goods, told Abridged by PBS KVIE that they were looking to take their lives in a different direction after eight years running the shop downtown.
“We’ve always had good business. I thought we’d always have a shop,” said Linda Arbogast, who co-owns Martin Mattox with her husband, Tim. “We’re just ready for something different, a new challenge, so we’re not going to be selling stuff anymore.”
Arbogast said she’s enjoyed doing business downtown, with a large following among longtime community members who often support the “shop local” movement. But she’s noticed that the community has changed in the years since they opened up downtown, with new residents moving in from places like the Bay Area and others leaving town.
City economic development director Jonathan Wright said downtown is experiencing a normal amount of turnover this year, and new businesses are already looking to take over the two storefronts being vacated by Little Bird and Martin Mattox.
Wright said that despite appearances — Little Bird’s empty space, Martin Mattox and a third storefront that hasn’t been open in years are all adjacent to each other — Auburn is in a moment of new opportunity, with recent investments aiming to stimulate business activity and attract customers.
Rising economic pressure
Loved Again Boutique, a children’s store, sits just across the street from Martin Mattox and Little Bird. Store owner Juliana Dent said that though her shop has been doing well, nearby store closures and the rise of platforms like Amazon and Facebook Marketplace have hurt business.
“Before Amazon was popular, people would come in and try a consignment store first,” Dent said. “And now, it’s so convenient to go to places like that and Facebook Marketplace, or do a drive-up pickup at Target.”
With rising costs of living across the region, many people who frequented retail stores in the past have found their wallets stretched thin, prioritizing paying for needs rather than goods like new clothes or jewelry.
Running a business has become increasingly costly for shop owners. Many of them cited state taxes, rising expenses needed to pay employees fairly, high supply costs, and rent increases among the pressures with which they contend.
Parker Kelly, an employee at the popular North Fork Deli, has lived in Auburn for about a decade. Over the past few years, he’s seen several businesses leave the downtown area, with office spaces often popping up in their place.
“The creeping costs have gone up, and a lot of rents jump up instead of slowly increasing,” Kelly said. “In our building, for a lot of people, their rent has gone up almost two or three times just within a semester. So, it is pretty crazy.”
Losing longtime businesses
Landlord issues sometimes go beyond rising rents. Cherry Records has been operating out of Downtown Auburn for over 30 years, and after longtime owner Al Lauer passed away in April, his son William Cutler took over.
Less than six months later, Cutler is preparing for Cherry Records to leave town. The property’s landlord, he said, wants to take back the space, renovate it, and potentially rent it out to two businesses instead of one.
Cherry Records can stay in the space for now. Cutler hopes that the business can keep its Auburn shop through the holidays, but they’ll likely move closer to his home in Nevada City by February.
Downtown Auburn is home to a range of mainstream and specialized businesses, from bars and restaurants to snowboard shops and clock repair stores. It also hosts several spaces for offices, including real estate and property management companies. Watson of Milo Snow and Skate said that because foot traffic to some businesses tends to attract people to others, downtown would benefit from more shops that appeal to young people and visitors passing through.
“I definitely think there needs to be a revamp if it’s going to hit like some of the nearby downtowns, like Lincoln and Grass Valley,” he said. “There’s a lot stacked against small retail right now, and that needs to change — it’s really cool down here, and it needs to be inviting for a thriving downtown.”
Tackling change
Wright, the city’s economic development director, is looking to embrace change in Downtown Auburn. Five years ago, people would tell him that the area felt “pretty dead,” but he’s seen less of that sentiment now.
The perception of business closures may not always match reality, he added. Rumors recently swirled that the Bee Gal Shoppe, a downtown-based honey business, was closing, but owner Sanam Hamdard said that the storefront is only on a temporary hiatus while she explores new vendors and honey sources. In the meantime, they will still host pop-ups in the area.
Businesses — especially the new shops — are increasingly hosting events and staying open later, which Wright said helps the downtown area bustle. Though closing stores often mean the loss of community staples, the debut of new shops with different ways of doing business can be beneficial.
“I feel like now is a growth period,” Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Michele Tuggle said. “There is a renewed energy, and a lot of the new businesses come from younger entrepreneurs.”
Chris Haupt, owner of Two Ass Brewing Company and president of the Downtown Auburn Business Association, said that several new openings and renovations have reinvigorated the downtown area, helping attract visitors.
With more people looking to shop outside of traditional work hours, the association and local leaders have been trying to convince many businesses to stay open later to meet the change — with mixed results.
“A lot of retail is just not open in the evening or weekends, so they’re not quite able to take advantage of all this extra foot traffic that is happening,” Haupt said. “We haven’t done as good of a job in getting folks to evolve for that.”
Many of the businesses opening have brought new activities and attractions previously unseen downtown, including a barcade. As for what’s next for business in downtown Auburn? Possibly marijuana, if the economic development department is able to secure a cannabis license from officials in the near future.
‘Shop local, eat local and support local’
The city of Auburn and other local organizations have taken steps to invest in the area, including awarding a total of $30,000 in grants to downtown development last month. And Auburn’s third entertainment zone, which allows the open carry of alcohol, opened earlier this year. Wright said that the entertainment zones are part of a greater push to stir up more nighttime activity downtown, where most non-restaurant businesses close before dark.
Skye Toro, who owns Skye Clothing Boutique, said that improvements like new signage around the area have been helpful for businesses. The boutique struggled with high costs and slower business last year, but this year, things have been looking up amid a greater push to shop local.
“The community is really pressing people to shop local, eat local and support local,” Toro said. “Auburn is really trying to push that right now more than ever, and I think the community is really coming together.”
