LA Small Businesses Struggle to Get Back to Work

• The LA fires destroyed thousands of structures, and times are tough for the businesses that remain.
• In Malibu, Pasadena, and other areas of LA County, the wealthy were not the only ones affected.
• Small business owners report slowing sales and lower foot traffic.

Small businesses are struggling to get up off the mat after the LA fires walloped them — and some owners are asking people to remember that not everyone affected was a wealthy Hollywood star.

While many businesses in the path of the fires were destroyed, the ones that remain standing face their own set of challenges.

In the Pacific Palisades and Malibu alone, which were devastated by the Palisades Fire, there was a 64.7% decrease and a 67.7% decrease, respectively, in businesses open the week the fires started relative to the same week in January of last year. That’s according to data collected by Homebase, a small business operations platform.

Similarly, Homebase reported that Altadena and Pasadena, which were hit by the Eaton Fire, saw a 32.5% decrease and a 19.4% decrease in businesses open for the same week relative to January 2024.

Meanwhile, according to Homebase, small businesses across the Los Angeles metropolitan area saw a 5.3% to 8.9% decrease in employee hours worked from January 9 through January 13.

Christopher Tompkins, the owner of Broad Street Oyster Company, opened his first restaurant in Malibu in 2019 and has since expanded to add a coffee and ice cream shop next door and three other locations in Southern California and one in San Francisco.

Just a few weeks ago, he was still reeling from the Franklin Fire, which burned through over 4,000 acres of Malibu in December and forced him to close his doors for the first time in five years, he said.

“That felt devastating and also terrifying because everything was so close,” Tompkins told Business Insider. “The fire was on our road. The fire was around the restaurant. Personally, I thought we were done for, I thought everything was gone.”

Then, when the Palisades Fire broke out two weeks ago, he said he “couldn’t believe it.”

The Palisades Fire, which started on January 7, burned through 23,000 acres and destroyed over 6,000 structures as simultaneous fires raged across other parts of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

The Palisades Fire forced Tompkins to again close his Malibu location, which is normally open 365 days a year, for over two weeks.

Tompkins said he finally got full utilities, like gas and internet, back over this past weekend, and now, he’s doing everything he can to reopen this week under limited hours and with a “skeleton crew.”

Though his building was not hit by the fire, being closed for so long has already taken a toll, he said.

Tompkins estimates the loss of income from the Malibu location to be around $600,000 to $750,000, not to mention the staff who have been out of work.

He said that out of 55 crew members there, he’s only been able to find work for fewer than 10 elsewhere.

“Malibu is a huge generator of revenue for our company. It’s our busiest location. It’s our first location. It’s the one I hold most dear to my heart,” he told BI.

And as he’s trying to get back up and running, Tompkins wants people to know it’s not just the wealthy who’ve been affected by the devastating fires.

“I don’t want that to be the narrative for the rest of Malibu and for the rest of the Pacific Palisades because I personally know some customers of mine who have supported me from day one that live in Pacific Palisades. They are not these rich people on the beach,” Tompkins said.

They’re not all celebrities who lost their multimillion-dollar homes in the fires, Tompkins said. They’re regular people, too — “and they don’t know what they’re going to do next,” he said. “They don’t have another property to go to.”

People’s lives depend on the many small businesses that line the Pacific Coast Highway, he said, and the small businesses still need customers to stay afloat.

That sentiment was echoed by Amara Barroeta, who owns a Venezuelan café, called Amara’s Café, in Pasadena.

After the Eaton Fire devastated parts of Pasadena and neighboring Altadena, Barroeta said her business has been struggling.

Since reopening after three days of closure due to the fires, Barroeta said her café has had only about 20% of its usual business, and as a result, she’s had to reduce her staff members’ hours down to 60% or 70% of their typical schedule.

And Barroeta said she worries about people in the restaurant industry who might not have the same access to government help and other resources — especially if they’re newer to the country or living off the traditional grid.

The Migration Policy Institute conducted a study in 2019 estimating that in Los Angeles County, the population of unauthorized, employed workers was around 600,000 — and about 15% of those work in the food services, accommodation, arts, entertainment, and recreation sectors.

It’s not just businesses near the fire-affected areas that are suffering in the aftermath of what has become one of the costliest natural disasters in US history. Businesses across the city, even those farther away from evacuation zones, have reported things slowing down.

Jack Biebel, who owns Ggiata Delicatessen, told Business Insider that foot traffic at his deli’s five locations — in Melrose Hill, West Hollywood, Venice, Highland Park, and Studio City — has been down since the fires started.

Biebel said that having to close his five locations for a total of seven working days the week the fires started had a substantial impact on his business.

His Highland Park location was closed for a few days because of power outages. And for the first few days he reopened it, he closed off the dining room, which normally seats 30 or 40 customers, to turn it into a donation collection center for people affected by the fires.

More than a dozen owners and managers at restaurants throughout the city told Eater they saw reduced business in the week following the fires. For example, Mark Nechols, the general manager of N/Soto in Mid-City, told the outlet he saw about half as many diners as usual, while Bret Thompson, the chef and partner at Pez Coastal Kitchen in Pasadena, said his restaurant lost 85% of its business in one week following the fires.

With thousands of homes and businesses destroyed or damaged, the losses from the LA fires are mounting. AccuWeather estimates the total damages could be up to $275 billion, and Goldman Sachs predicts the fires will remove between 15,000 and 25,000 jobs from the Labor Department’s January employment report.

But there may be some help for those struggling to get back on their feet. For example, the US Small Business Administration has approved $52 million in disaster loans, LA Mayor Karen Bass said Thursday. And LA County has launched both a small business relief fund and a worker relief fund providing grants to eligible applicants.

Aside from the official channels for support, many businesses — including Ggiata’s, Broad Street Oyster Company, Amara’s Café, and countless others — have also taken it upon themselves to offer grassroots support for their communities, including collecting donations, hosting fundraisers, donating food to first responders, and helping neighbors navigate the bureaucracy of relief.