Salt Lake event encourages shoppers to visit mom and pop shops for unique finds

Salt Lake City Mayor-elect Erin Mendenhall talks to Gail Piccoli, owner of Commerce & Craft, right, while making a purchase at the shop during a Small Business Saturday event in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Small, unique shops pepper the streets of Salt Lake City and most other Utah communities, but how many have you stepped into?

During the second annual Shop Small Crawl on Saturday, dozens of local businesses joined up to help kick off the holiday shopping season and promote mom and pop shops in a time when big retailers often take the spotlight.

In Commerce and Craft, a store located in the Sugar House neighborhood at 1950 S. 1100 East, a small group of shoppers met up with Salt Lake City Mayor-elect Erin Mendenhall to browse quirky pieces of art, ornaments and winter wear.

Store owner Gail Piccoli said she stocks the shop with pieces made by crafters from around the country, and even Canada. She herself makes stained glass art.

“I do think the small businesses really make the character of a community. You know where you are because of the small businesses, and so I think it’s important to support small businesses for that reason,” Piccoli explained.

It’s also essential to support artists in order to keep art alive, she added.

“And anyone who’s able to open up their wallet to someone who makes something, I think it’s just a great thing.”

The holiday season is “extremely” important to the success of her business, she said. “I mean, I wish it wasn’t quite so, but it is very important, for sure.”

Though the administrative duties associated with owning a shop can be challenging, she said, the store receives a lot of support in Sugar House. Among rewards to running a small shop are “just the people that just appreciate, in general. They might not buy something, but they enjoy being here, and they look at everything, and they ask questions.”

“Small business are what make Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City,” Mendenhall said. “It’s drawn so many of us, myself included, to want to live here where we can walk, shop, know the shop owners, help support our community while being a part of something that’s bigger than us, at the same time.”

She said for every dollar spent in a local business, 55 cents stay in that city.

Meanwhile, when shopping at large, non-locally owned retailers, only 13% stays in Utah, according to Buy Local First Utah, the group that organized the event.

“So it’s literally building our economy in a way that’s four times bigger than a chain business. Also, these businesses are contributing property taxes and helping us support our roads, our schools,” Mendenhall said.

But along with adding to the city’s coffers by shopping local, “you get really cool stuff you couldn’t find anywhere else,” she said, showing reporters the handmade ornaments she found for family members, artsy stickers and “snarky buttons.”

“You can’t find it at Walmart,” Mendenhall said.

Lisa Brady, owner of Lillie Botanica, also at 1950 S. 1100 East, said owning the shop is a way to share the things she loves.

“It’s great being able to do what I love, and I fill the shop full of things that I would want, and so I hope that other people would want them, too,” she said.

The shop sells “kind of a little bit of everything, really,” from a variety of vintage items, to mini pagodas, to framed butterflies. She said she used to own a tea room downtown, and she brought her “tea sensibilities” with her to her new store.

Old-fashioned French music plays softly in the background. Brady hopes those who come in can “do a little bit of time travel by stepping in here.”

Small shops are needed because “there’s a place for everything. Sometimes, you just want something from a big store. But I think when you come into little stores like this, you can get things you can’t get at other stores like that,” she said.

Like Piccoli, Brady said holiday season shopping is essential to her business.

“We really count on the holidays to sort of fund the rest of our year. You know, you buy things throughout the year, and then you hope that the holidays will really give you enough to sort of pay for all that,” she said.

Though Brady loves owning a business, the challenge for many is getting enough sales to keep going, and letting people know they’re there. “Because we don’t have the big advertising budgets that some places do.”

Helen Wade, owner of the Stockist, 875 E. 900 South, a “life shop” that carries men’s and women’s clothing and home goods, called small businesses “the heart of Salt Lake City, and of Utah.”

“Small business keeps everything going, keeps it alive. We support our communities 100%. We give back to our neighborhoods, and we give back to our schools, and we all work together in partnerships. ... If you want to still feel that neighborhood community, support your local businesses,” Wade urged.

For her, the biggest challenge of running a small, local business is “the stress of thinking you need to keep up with those big stores, when that’s not a realistic goal. So keeping your goals realistic, and to be honest, cash flow’s always a big thing for small businesses.”

She said she wants people to remember that large retailers get special terms from manufacturers — and sometimes don’t pay their bills. By contrast, small businesses have to pay for everything up front, she said.

The Conens, who happened upon the shopping event, had heard about Sugar House and set out to explore it.

“And our daughter, too, is not with us, and so we’re kind of getting ideas for Christmas, of neat little things you can’t find anywhere else,” Lisa Conen said as she browsed in Commerce and Craft. Among interesting items, she found reusable sandwich wraps that she thought her daughter would like.

“When we go to different towns, we always like hitting little spots like this, local shops ... kind of explore the place,” Rich Conen explained.

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