Shop the Squeeze campaign launches to support small businesses and promote alternative transit

March 15, 2019 by OED

The Seattle Office of Economic Development (OED) and Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) are excited to launch #ShoptheSqueeze: a campaign to encourage locals to visit small businesses Downtown during the Seattle Squeeze—the period of transition Seattle faces over the next five years as public and private construction projects continue to change how we get around Downtown.

Driven primarily by weekly social media photo contests, the campaign encourages participants to visit their favorite Downtown small businesses via alternative transportation and share their stories. Alternative transportation includes walking, or traveling by bike, bus, ferry, Link light rail, Streetcar, or carpool – anything that helps ease traffic Downtown. Each month will feature a different small business sector, such as restaurants or art galleries, as a theme. Participants are entered to win prizes including $100 pre-loaded ORCA cards and Visa gift cards. Full contest details here.

Shop the Squeeze will focus primarily on Belltown, Pioneer Square, the Chinatown-International District , and the downtown retail core as the neighborhoods most impacted by upcoming transportation changes. The campaign mascots, Simon the Sasquatch and Pearl the Squirrel, will deliver family-friendly campaign messaging about important transit milestones, ideas for creative commuting, and photo contest details via social media, transit advertising, and our website: seattle.gov/shopthesqueeze.

While the new State Route 99 tunnel is now open, the Squeeze is long from over. Major changes to our transportation system are still on the horizon—our next big impact will hit on March 23, when the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel becomes Link light rail-only and hundreds of buses will move up to our surface streets. The Shop the Squeeze campaign is intended to keep people shopping and exploring Downtown neighborhoods in order to minimize the impacts of the remaining years of the #SeattleSqueeze on small businesses.

#ShoptheSqueeze rolled out Friday, March 15th, 2019 and will continue at least for the remainder of 2019. To participate, follow @SeattleEconomy on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website: seattle.gov/shopthesqueeze.

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Small Business of the Month: Works Progress

March 6, 2019 by Laura Bet

Works Progress owner Marnee Chua.

Listen: Origin Story – Works Progress

Coworking spaces are an increasingly popular option for small businesses, freelancers and entrepreneurs, and north Seattle businesses don’t have to look far to join a great coworking community. Works Progress is a coworking space located in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood, owned and operated by Marnee Chua since 2012.

Marnee Chua found the inspiration to open Works Progress through her own needs as a working mother. With a background in environmental science and conservation, Marnee moved with her husband and family to Seattle while working remotely for the University of California Merced. Finding it difficult to work from home in a small apartment while caring for her young son, Marnee began looking into coworking spaces and quickly discovered that most options were located downtown, too far from home to be practical for her. “So I started really looking, what would it take to open one more north? And I was especially interested in working on one that would have childcare on site.”

Marnee met a business partner with a similar vision, and the two worked hard to find a space that would allow for a combination coworking space and childcare center. They chose the location on North 85th Street with the goal of incorporating childcare in the future, but eventually had to abandon that idea.

Two women talking behind a kitchen counter

The member kitchen at Works Progress.

While an in-house childcare option never materialized at Works Progress, the business is still family-friendly and flexible. Members are welcome to bring their children in as long as it doesn’t cause disruption. Marnee also helped convene the group who started The Inc, a non-profit offering coworking and childcare in Greenlake, where she often refers people who have childcare needs.

Today, Marnee focuses on the triple bottom line with Works Progress—prioritizing the business’s social and environmental responsibility as well as financial success. “I think that coworking spaces in general can play a huge role in community,” Marnee says. “Coworking spaces bring people together that live in the neighborhood…[who] didn’t know they could work together, and they have an opportunity to build that community locally.”

Beyond building community with their membership, Marnee gives back by opening the space to non-profits and other community groups. “We take in maybe one or two non–profits a year that we can give free meeting space for their boards. We host tons of events that are open to the community.”

Some of those open events include business development and mentorship for Marnee’s fellow small business owners. “SCORE does their office hours twice a month here, and so that way people from the north end, it’s much easier for them than to get downtown.”

One of the Office of Economic Development’s very own Small Business Advocates, AJ Cari, also holds regular office hours at Works Progress. AJ has a long-standing relationship with the business—Marnee first met him when he was conducting outreach with the businesses impacted by the 2016 Greenwood explosion (right around the corner from Works Progress). “I met AJ since he’s been out in the community. Now, I have someone to call if somethings goes wrong,” she says.

AJ Cari and Marnee Chua sitting together on a couch

Marnee Chua and Small Business Advocate AJ Cari.

Marnee appreciates AJ’s ability to connect her to resources and people in the community that she may otherwise have never known about, and his know-how in navigating bureaucracy. “There’s so many different things in running a business—whether you’re doing taxes or whatever it is, you’ve got so many layers within the City, and then you have three or four or five different agencies in the State that you have to deal with, and you’re supposed to manage it even if you’re doing everything yourself. It’s a real headache” she explains. “It’s good to be able to have a resource where you can call and ask where to go for this next step.”

If you’re thinking of opening your own business, Marnee recommends taking advantage of resources like OED’s team of Small Business Advocates—especially before taking big steps like signing a lease. “There are so many ways that the lease can be set against the business. Especially brand new businesses, they’ll sign a lease that is not good for them,” she says. OED has a commercial lease checklist available online to help small businesses negotiate favorable leases, and businesses can contact us anytime for one-on-one assistance.

Marnee is excited for the next step in Works Progress’s journey: the business is exploring how to become a member-owned cooperative. “Members are excited about it as a way of having a little more investment in the space and say in what happens. I think the biggest interest that everyone has is for the long-term succession plan of the business itself, because it is a nice community, it’s something that people want to stay at as long as they can,” she explains. If and when Works Progress switches to a co-op model, Marnee believes it will be the first member-owned coworking space in the United States (as far as she’s been able to find from online research).

If you’re looking to join a welcoming, geeky, laid-back coworking community, you can find Works Progress at 115 N 85th Street, Suite 202, in Greenwood. Keep up with them on Facebook and Twitter too.

If you’re interested in learning more about our small business services and resources, shoot us an email at oed@seattle.gov.

Small Business of the Month: Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon

February 5, 2019 by Laura Bet

David Fu stands in front of various framed awards and newspaper articles

David Fu at his restaurant.

Listen: Origin Story – Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon

Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon has been a staple of Seattle’s restaurant scene for decades. The nine-time winner of King 5’s Best of Western Washington Best Chinese Restaurant and one of CNN’s 50 best Chinese restaurants in the United States, Snappy Dragon has been family-owned and operated in Maple Leaf since opening its doors in 1993.

Born in Qingdao, China and raised in Taiwan, Judy Fu came to the United States with her son David and daughter Mari in 1971. The family first settled in Washington DC and made the long road trip to move out to Seattle several years later. After settling here, Judy worked in a couple of north end restaurants before opening her own. “Snappy Dragon started because my mother always had a vision of starting her own restaurant,” says her son David, who now runs the business. “She really wanted to start a restaurant so she could have her food on display, so people can enjoy it.”

David and Judy Fu.

Opening the restaurant was intimidating for the family. “It was really kind of scary, because of the amount of money we had to borrow from the bank,” David remembers. But Snappy Dragon soon earned a reputation for Judy’s Mandarin/Szechuan-style cooking, getting rave reviews and becoming a popular neighborhood destination.

Lots of things have stayed the same throughout Snappy Dragon’s 26 years in business. While David has taken over the business, his mother Judy still comes in to work daily. The restaurant is still best known for its handmade dumplings and noodles. (Both come highly recommended from David—he makes the dumplings himself, and his mom makes the noodles.) Even the cartoon dragon coloring page for kids has stayed the same.

Running the restaurant is hard work—David typically works from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., even spending his lunch breaks running errands for the business. But he still has fun working with his family and staff, and he’s thankful for the community of customers who continue to support Snappy Dragon year after year. “Meeting customers, that’s my favorite part. And having people say hi to me even though I work in the back,” he says. “It’s always great to see people go, ‘Hey, can we say hi to Dave?’ That always makes me very happy.”

A wall of framed awards and newspaper articles

Judy Fu’s many awards and reviews on display.

If you’re thinking of opening your own business—particularly a restaurant—David recommends having patience. “In the beginning it’s very slow business, but you just have to stay on your course.” He also stresses the importance of treating your staff and customers with kindness and respect.

Stop by Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon at 8917 Roosevelt Way NE in Maple Leaf, and keep up with them on Facebook. You can even find Judy Fu’s very own line of sauces at local grocery stores.

Learn about how the Office of Economic Development supports like Judy Fu’s by visiting our website, and reach out to us anytime at oed@seattle.gov.

Small Business of the Month: Estelita’s Library

January 1, 2019 by Laura Bet

Estelita’s Library founder Edwin Lindo with Small Business Advocate Domonique Meeks.

Listen: Origin Story – Estelita’s Library

The books in Estelita’s Library are not organized by author’s last name, genres, or by any other particular system. “For us the structure is very simple,” says Estelita’s founder and curator, Edwin Lindo. “The door tells you what section of the bookstore this is. It’s Estelita’s Social Justice Library.” The library is located in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The absence of defined sections plays into Estelita’s mission: giving the community a space to come together and expand horizons through culture and conversation. Inspired by similar spaces in Edwin’s childhood growing up in San Franscisco’s Mission District, and named after Edwin and his partner Estell’s first born, Estelita’s Library reactivated the space carrying its legacy as a place for community to speak openly about politics, history and the neighborhood. Since May, the books on the shelves have served as centerpieces and conversation starters. Edwin spoke about the importance of community space to host events, have open dialogue or just sit quietly and read. Guests can buy wine or other refreshments and books are available to borrow or purchase, but you don’t have to be a paying customer to come in and enjoy the space and read for as long as you’d like.

Edwin holding the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Edwin grabs his favorite book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Many of the titles in Estelita’s came from Edwin’s personal collection; the rest were donated by community members. Edwin stresses the importance of bookstores and literary spaces for the Black Panthers and grassroots organizations throughout the 60s and 70s. Having access to these books, and a community space in which to read them, allows people to build relationships and learn from each other. “I love sitting in that chair in the corner reading a book and hearing the six different conversations happening. And being able to see those conversations getting larger, and they start integrating with each other, and all of a sudden there’s one conversation.”

Edwin watches people find the words to describe their own feelings and experiences in books at Estelita’s. “That’s what I believe books are…We get to tap into language that helps us describe our conditions, our analysis, and the way that we want to thrive.”

Three guests sitting at a table in the library.

Guests at Estelita’s.

Edwin gives a special shoutout to Leona and Luis Rodriguez at The Station for saying yes without hesitation. After graduating from the University of Washington School of Law in 2012, Edwin didn’t feel completely at home in Seattle until he and his wife stopped by The Station. It was then that he fell in love with Beacon Hill. “When I moved back a few years ago, we went to The Station. And I went, ‘Oh! This is the neighborhood I’ve been looking for.’”

The space that houses Estelita’s Library was The Station’s original home, right across the street from the coffee shop’s new location. Luis was running a wine bar out of the old shop, and Edwin asked if he could open a social justice-focused library there too. “Luis gave me the key, and next day there’s shelves on the wall. He was like, ‘Oh, you’re serious!’” Edwin laughs. “I was like, ‘Dead serious.’”

Since opening in May, Estelita’s has gained over 300 members and circulated over 1,500 books. The space is home to movie nights, New Orleans style Po’ Boy pop-ups, Salsa and Sangria events, and any other events that community members want to host there. “I’m a curator, we curated this space, but the community makes this place. They decide how it works, they decide how it operates. They want to run an event, they can run an event.”

Posters and photographs displayed on a wall

Edwin helps provide posters like these to local teachers.

“There’s something powerful for community, for myself, to be able to say, ‘We have a space.’ Unconditional space. No strings attached,” he says. When Edwin says the space is community-run, he means it. People can take books as they please without worrying about late fees, and if Edwin needs to leave Estelita’s early or can’t be there when it opens, he trusts others to open or close up shop for him.

You can expect to see much more from Estelita’s Library this year, thanks in part to the first-ever Tiny Cultural Space design and construction project from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, which will allow Estelita’s to add a new location in the Central District. In addition to the new location, Edwin hopes that Estelita’s membership will grow to 1,000 people and plans to make his catalog accessible online. Edwin is also in conversation with LEMS Life Enrichment Bookstore to see how the two businesses can support one another, “because LEMS deserves to live indefinitely, and continue to be the oldest black-owned bookstore on the West Coast.”

If you’re thinking of opening your own small business, Edwin’s first piece of advice is to not be in it for the money. He points out the irony that he opened a bookstore in 2018, as physical book sales continue to decline. “It’s not a money maker. So I guess the next thing I would say is, be in community. Don’t try to do it alone. That’s really the only way this place operates. We are absolutely community-centered, and that keeps us going.”

You can find Estelita’s Library at 2533 16th Ave S (right by the Beacon Hill light rail station and El Centro de la Raza). If you come in looking for a particular title, Edwin can help you find it. “Spend enough time in here, you know where the books are.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the Office of Economic Development’s small business services, visit our  website  or reach out to us at oed@seattle.gov.

New VR fellowship creates career pathways for Seattle’s underserved communities

December 19, 2018 by OED

The Seattle Office of Economic Development launched the FutureFounders VR Fellowship this fall, a paid, four-month training, networking and hands-on experience in virtual reality app development. The program is intended to create career pathways for communities with low access to opportunity in Seattle’s booming tech sector while simultaneously encouraging innovation in community development. As a part of the FutureFounders pilot program, a group of young Seattle developers created a new app which allows residents of Rainier Beach to explore their neighborhood virtually.

Future Founders 2018 Fellows. Left to right: Julie Le, Eduardo Rojas, Beverly Aarons, Jakari Brown, Hafsa Don

The inaugural cohort, comprised mostly of South Seattle residents ages 18 to 24, learned virtual reality design and coding and built a prototype of the Rainier Beach Food Innovation District in just four months. The VR app is a game called “XR Valley” and can be played on the Oculus Go. The Fellows will present their prototype during a demo event at the Ethiopian Community in Seattle on Friday, December 21 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

“Participating in FutureFounders has been life-changing for me,” said Beverly Aarons, a member of the cohort. “When I first got involved with the program I didn’t have any technical background. I’m a writer by profession but for the past few years, I’ve been experimenting with game development. However, my biggest obstacle was that I could not code. I always depended on partnering with a programmer. Now that I’ve gone through the program, I have the skills I need to create my own game or interactive experience from the ground up. Getting involved with FutureFounders was one of the best professional decisions I’ve ever made.“

Throughout the program, the Fellows had guidance and support from companies like SIXR, Chronos Global Academy, Floodgate Academy, and other local tech experts and mentors. This Friday’s event will kick off with a brief presentation, followed by demos in which attendees will have the chance to use an Oculus Go headset to navigate the neighborhood virtually as they visit places in the Food Innovation District via the Metro Bus.

In 2012, Rainier Beach residents came together around a renewed neighborhood plan. In their vision, food acted as a catalyst for neighborhood identity, cultural diversity and heritage, health and job creation. Local food innovation (growing, production, and distribution) is projected to be a top-ten growth industry over the next decade. Jobs are an anti-displacement strategy.

The concept of the Rainier Beach Food Innovation District, led by the Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC), clusters manufacturing, technology, and food sectors around the light rail station to provide access to career paths in living-wage jobs, strengthening the local economy through production rather than consumption. The VR Fellows wanted a way to help the Rainier Beach community visualize and feel ownership of the Food Innovation District, so they learned how to create immersive experiences using Unity, a game engine, and C#, a common programming language for virtual reality.

“Creating the Rainier Beach Food Innovation District VR experience has been really exciting. I hope that people who take the time to experience our demo will get a taste of what this amazing food industry hub can be for South Seattle,” said Aarons.

As Seattle is poised to become a leader in emerging tech industries like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and blockchain, there is also opportunity to prepare youth and young adults from communities that have been marginalized from the innovation economy to not only participate but become future technology leaders. The FutureFounders pilot program seeks to leverage the innovative thought and resources found in Seattle to connect underserved communities to opportunity, break cycles of poverty and build generational wealth.

Louisa Hotel renovation project offers opportunity for community development

December 17, 2018 by Laura Bet

You’re looking at the future home of ten Chinatown-International District small businesses, new and old! Last week, Office of Economic Development staff joined our colleagues at the Office of Planning and Community Development and the Department of Neighborhoods for a tour of the historic Louisa Hotel—currently under construction.

The Louisa Hotel, built in 1910, suffered a fire in 2013 that damaged seven street-level businesses. Owner Tanya Woo and her family weren’t sure they would ever be able to restore the building, but thanks to the generosity of a local investor, the Louisa Hotel is currently being rebuilt to include 84 new apartments for those making between $45,000 and $75,000 a year, and 10 retail spaces on the street level.

As businesses in the Chinatown-International District struggle with rising rents and rapid changes in the neighborhood, the Louisa Hotel project is an exciting opportunity to connect business owners with the perfect space to run their restaurant or shop for years to come. Shanti Breznau, Business Development Consultant with SCIDpda, has worked closely with the Woo family, the developer (Barrientos Ryan) and neighborhood businesses throughout the redevelopment process. Coordinating with potential tenants early on means that the necessary nuts and bolts for a restaurant can be part of the design from the start—not an expense that a business owner has to take on when they move in. With SCIDPDA, the Woos and Barrientos Ryan working together, the building is set to open with a great mix of businesses that reflect and compliment the rest of the neighborhood.

Thank you to Tanya Woo and Alexandra Moravec and Kristin Ryan for showing us around and telling us about your work! We can’t wait to see the new Louisa Hotel building open next year. Stay tuned!

Small Business of the Month: Cortona Café

December 10, 2018 by Laura Bet

Cortona Cafe owner Isolynn Dean holding a Small Business of the Month certificate.

Owner Isolynn Dean (known as Ice).

Listen: Origin Story – Cortona Café

Cortona Café is “a café in Seattle’s Central District that puts community first.” Located on the corner of East Union and 25^th, Cortona is a cozy two-story café, art gallery and event space curated for community conversation. Owner Isolynn Dean—who mostly goes by Ice—is one of those community members herself, living only a few houses away.

Born in Carson, California, Ice arrived in Seattle in 2011 as a transplant from St. Louis. She initially moved in with her sister and her brother-in-law Jason, who lived in the Central District. At the time, Jason owned the café, and Ice began working there as a barista.

In 2013, Jason chose to move on from Cortona and offered his staff and other locals in the coffee industry the chance to buy the business. “At that time, I was working here, and I also was planning on moving to Thailand for a couple years,” Ice explains. “So I had a saved up a nice chunk of change. And long story short, I just made a decision, like, do I grow up and do this? I was 24, also. Like, do I grow up and do this, or do I travel the world for a little bit? And obviously, I’m here. So you know which one I chose!”

There was a steep learning curve when Ice took over the business, not only because she was a first-time business owner, but also because of the extra projects she took on right from the start. “There are a few things I did to tweak the shop and bring in extra income. I had all these ideas.”

One of these projects was hosting food pop-ups at Cortona. Ice’s friend Zac Reynolds—now owner of Cook Weaver in Capitol Hill—came and served food from Cortona’s small kitchen space consistently on weekends for two years. Ice also made it a priority to host a few events per week at Cortona, to help bring in more customers. Her most ambitious project was getting a parklet built right outside the café on East Union. “It was actually a beautiful experience,” she says, describing how a handful of people in the neighborhood worked together to raise the $35,000 needed to make the parklet a reality. “I just had a lot of community support.”

The community Ice has been able to find in the Central District has kept her living in the neighborhood through her nearly eight years in Seattle, and she reflects the way that the neighborhood embraced her in how she runs her business and treats her customers. “The Central District used to be very diverse. And it still feels like city, but it also feels like neighborhood. It feels like community. We talk to each other, we help each other. And I think with [Cortona Café]—before I got here, and since I’ve been here—I feel like I’ve created a little hub where people can come and get to know their neighbors. People will come here and they’ll talk to random strangers,” she says.

“I wish more of Seattle was how it is in Cortona. I love this little space and the vibes. I think it makes people comfortable. I think how I was accepted into the community in the Central District is how we are here.”

Ice credits family and community members for assisting her along the way as a new small business owner, and she also took advantage of free mentoring through one of our partner organizations, Greater Seattle SCORE. Her mentor, Scott, had experience as a business owner and was there to give advice: “We would meet up for coffee. Any questions I had, any frustrations, he would pretty much answer them within the first two minutes.” Office of Economic Development staffer Mikel Davila also built a relationship with the business, coming by to let Ice know about funding opportunities available to her.

Now, having owned and operated Cortona for a few years, Ice has her own advice to pass along to aspiring Seattle entrepreneurs. “Be ready to lose sleep…You have to really care about what you’re doing. Because if not, it’s just not going to last.” And, importantly: “Have a support system—you can’t do this by yourself.”

Ice doesn’t plan to run Cortona forever, but before she leaves, she hopes to mentor and groom the next owner so that the café can continue to be a safe, beautiful, comfortable, legacy space for years to come.

You can find Cortona Café at 2425 E Union St. Come get a pastry (all made by POC vendors in the Central District), try a waffle, host your next book club meeting upstairs, or just stop in for coffee and conversation. “Just show up. We want to see you!”

If you’re interested in learning more about mentoring through organizations like SCORE, or other services for small businesses, visit our website or reach out to us at oed@seattle.gov.

Ada’s Technical Books builds quirky community on Capitol Hill

November 27, 2018 by Sabrina Zhu

A view of Ada's bookstore, with shelves on the right and a customer seating area to the left.

Photo: Cindy Apple

Ada’s Technical Books, established at their current location in 2013, embraces Seattle’s nerdy population, old and new, and is dedicated to building community in the neighborhood in partnership with the 15^th Ave Merchants Association. Owners Danielle and David Hulton combine bookstore, café, coworking space, tech paradise, and event space all into one. “When we moved in, it was super run down and it was still laid out as a house – which gave us a lot of freedom to do whatever we wanted to the space,” says Danielle Hulton.

As proud, long-time Capitol Hill residents, the Hultons were passionate about keeping the exterior of the store looking the same as it has for years, choosing to build around and include existing elements of the house in the storefront. Before Ada’s, the space was Horizon Books, another bookstore and a longstanding staple of the 15^th Ave community. To Danielle, Ada’s is a space for the newer tech community to gather, for café-goers to stumble upon, and for everyone to explore. “Someone might come in and be looking for a cup of coffee but then start playing with the puzzles on the shelf… and if that piques their interest, then that’s a win.” Danielle says.

A barista grabbing a cup behind the counter at the Ada's cafe.

Photo credit: Cindy Apple.

Ada’s is a meld of Danielle’s background in electrical engineering and various wide-spread interests. In the beginning, Ada’s was a staple spot for books about all things technical, from coding and programming manuals to children’s books to hands-on logic puzzles. The Hultons’ aim was to represent every aspect of the tech community. A good friend of Danielle’s used her food science background to get the in-house vegetarian and vegan restaurant menu off the ground in the cafe. As the years went on, the demand for a gathering space grew, and Ada’s listened. In 2016, The Lab at Ada’s became a rentable event space hosting public and private events, available for anything from work celebrations, anniversaries, and themed parties. Many pieces of furniture at Ada’s were made locally or especially for the space, and the Marie Curie-themed Lab even offers specialty cocktails concocted by the Ada’s staff. The Office, which opened in 2014, gives monthly desk renters 24/7 access to the space and a place to call home right on 15^th Ave.

Moving to 15^th Ave in 2013 was a jump of faith that Hulton says would not have been the same without the support of their neighbors and the 15^th Ave Merchants Association. As a business district organization, the 15^th Ave Merchants Association organizes community-wide events such as the 15^th Ave Street Fest, where local businesses come together to celebrate and showcase their specialties. The association works together to build a stronger community by sharing expertise and supporting each other’s businesses.

A display of books and products, with customers sitting at tables in the background.

Photo credit: Cindy Apple.

“When we were first renovating, so many of the other businesses came by and welcomed us,” Danielle says, “we felt so supported and I think right then, we knew 15^th Ave was going to be home.” Danielle is also a member of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and is excited to form 15^th Ave into even more of a community. “Because 15^th Ave is somewhat separate from the rest of Capitol Hill, it’s sometimes forgotten. There’s so much expertise shared between the merchants and we’re going to highlight that.”

Whether it’s through her work with the Merchants Association or through the many facets of her own business, Danielle is finding all sorts of ways to bring people together. Her latest venture is Ada’s Discovery Cafe—stop by to explore the science behind coffee and try some delicious, experimental drinks.

The Office of Economic Development Only in Seattle team is here to help support the neighborhood business districts who do so much to help one another. To learn more about our work, visit our website.

Photo contest, pop-up festival and online campaign encourage Seattle to Shop Small

November 14, 2018 by OED

Shop Seattle Gems is a city-wide campaign made to connect locals to the best “hidden gems” of Seattle, encouraging shoppers to “Go Big, Shop Small” throughout the holiday season. The Shop Seattle Gems campaign features opportunities for shoppers to win prizes while supporting their favorite small businesses through an online photo contest, trivia about local small businesses and a Beacon Hill festival and a scavenger hunt on November 24—Small Business Saturday.

“When I shop small, I feel a sense of community, of adventure, and what it means to be a Seattleite,” said Mayor Durkan. “I hope everyone will join me in celebrating our unique small businesses—and small business owners—by shopping at the places that make Seattle so special.”

Shop Seattle Gems encourages Seattleites to support small businesses in their neighborhoods—particularly minority, women, and LGBTQIA-owned businesses—during the holiday season and year-round. Local celebrities SassyBlack, Sylvia O’Stayformore, Tarik Abdullah and Mayor Durkan joined the campaign by participating in promotional videos highlighting the Seattle neighborhoods and small businesses that are meaningful to them.

“Shopping small is extremely important to our community and economic infrastructure. This is our city, our neighbors, and it’s necessary to support one another in whatever way we can,” said SassyBlack. “When asked to be a part of this campaign, it was a no-brainer. As a musician, I am a small business owner and I know the impact that it has on my work when people come out to my shows or buy merch. This is how we can keep the magic of Seattle alive, through shopping locally. I get great joy out of supporting and I try to do it in every city I travel to.”

The campaign includes a social media photo contest and #NameThatGem small business trivia. The photo contest winner will receive dinner for two at Cactus in South Lake Union, plus a seaplane tour for two on Kenmore Air. To enter the contest, participants simply post a photo of their favorite small business with the hashtag #seattlegems and tag the business location. The business tagged in the winning post will receive free small business marketing consulting courtesy of the City of Seattle. Winners will be announced December 15.*

On November 24, Beacon Hill Merchants Association (soon to be the Beacon Business Alliance) is hosting an all-day Shop Seattle Gems Festival, which includes a real life “Gem Hunt” at small businesses on Beacon Hill. Gems will be hidden at small businesses around Beacon, and the shoppers who find them will receive gift baskets of local goodies. The festival will also include a variety of activities, including a DJ, live painting, artisan vendors and more.

Shop Seattle Gems is all about building community and supporting the neighborhood businesses that give our city its character. “When you shop at local small businesses you’re contributing to the city’s culture, to its soul, to what makes your community unique and special to you,” said Tacos Chukis owner Roberto Salmeron.

“Shopping with small business is so important to Delite Bakery and our family especially because we are a family-run company. We like to feel that our products are made with passion and are enjoyed by others in our community, connecting us through the love of food,” said Delite Bakery owner Brittany Despi.

Shop Small is proudly backed by American Express. The Office of Economic Development worked with Indie Genius Media, Story 2 Cooperative Design Studio, OutSide Thinc and social media consultant Audrey Tamberg to design this year’s campaign.

Follow the Office of Economic Development on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to watch the campaign unfold throughout the shopping season and to get details on how to participate.

*These activities are not sponsored, administered or endorsed by American Express.

SassyBlack promotional video in West Seattle

Sylvia O’Stayformore promotional video in Georgetown

Tarik Abdullah promotional video in Beacon Hill

Mayor Jenny Durkan promotional video in Capitol Hill

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