Growing Ethnic Diversity Is Creating Market for Specialty Goods, Services : Specialization: Certain groups no longer have to travel out of O.C. for hard-to-find items. More shops are catering to minorities.
If you are what you buy, then Jacqueline Gray is pure African-American pride.
The mother of three says her holiday gifts reflect her interest in black history--from the African tribeswoman doll she is plans to give her daughter to colorful, long woven strips called “kente cloth” for her husband to wear with his tuxedo.
Finding such items was difficult until recently in Orange County, where blacks represent not quite 2% of 2.4 million population. She said she had to journey to gift stores in Los Angeles or San Diego that cater to those areas’ sizable black communities.
But a growing number of ethnic-owned shops in Orange County has allowed Gray, a former computer systems engineer, to save herself a long drive this year.
Holiday shopping in Orange County has become a multicultural affair. A number of stores cater to the county’s increasing ethnic and religious diversity.
Some of the stores like Images, the African-American gift shop in Santa Ana which Gray patronizes, are tucked away in shopping centers. Others are nestled in ethnic shopping districts, such as Little Saigon in Westminster or Fiesta Marketplace in downtown Santa Ana.
“In some ways, we are becoming more diverse, instead of a melting pot,” said Tiffany Haugen, director of the small business development program at UC Irvine. Minorities “are preserving their traditions, values and lifestyles, and passing them on.”
But as people of different ethnic groups sample the stores and restaurants of other groups, Haugen said, “we are becoming more interculturally sophisticated.”
Well, sometimes. Thi Nguyen said he can’t explain the habit of most non-Asians to browse the price tags, then exit the family-run Hiep Thanh gift store in the Asian Garden Mall in Little Saigon. Many of the prices are marked with expectations that the clerks will haggle, said owner Nguyen.
They “ask the prices, then leave,” shrugged Nguyen as he stood over the cash register. “The Asians will buy when they get a discount.”
As this observation points up, storekeepers who cater to ethnic and religious minorities need to take painstaking care to know the habits and needs of their customers.
Take Raymond Rangel, who opened his R&R; Sportswear on Santa Ana’s 4th Street in 1955 and has watched as the blocks outside become the bustling Latino shopping district now known as the Fiesta Marketplace.
Rangel explains that his customers, mostly Mexican immigrants, make their holiday purchases early--in October and November--in anticipation of returning to their native cities and villages for the holidays. Business comes to a standstill by the second or third week of December when most of them are traveling. But the last week before Christmas is usually busy because of patronage from those who stayed behind in the United States.
He stocks plenty of Stetson hats, jeans and Western shirts, because that is the standard uniform of present-laden campesinos returning briefly to their homelands. “Here, they dress one way. Over there, it’s another way,” Rangel explained.
He said he carries only American-made brands, because of their popularity in Mexico.
Up the street from Rangel’s store, Latino Jewelers employs a Spanish-speaking Santa on weekends. Owners say John and Cecelia Portillo say their Santa fills a language need that mainstream malls don’t provide. Santa’s throne is far back in the store so that parents can ogle the gold earrings and Christian pendants as their children review their wish lists with the Big Guy. Kids leave with a photo and a helium balloon.
The greatest draw for many of these stores is simply their exclusivity. There are so few stores serving the ethnic gift needs of Orange County’s more than 42,000 blacks that Pamela Coffey figures her Images is sure to be a success.
“The African-American community needed a store like this,” said Coffey, surrounded by a collection of cards, dolls, records and Malcolm X T-shirts. “Everything you buy in the (mainstream) stores has people on it, but the people don’t look like you.”
Images customer Gray said she is “very glad to see that store” because it carries so many items she can’t find anywhere else locally. For example, she bought a kit to help commemorate Kwanzaa, an observance from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 based on traditional African agricultural celebrations. The kit came complete with the ceremonial objects that go along with the celebration, such as a “unity cup” and a display of candles to be lit each day of the celebration. (Kwanzaa is a Swahili word meaning first.)
“The importance of it is to allow my children to have a cultural identity so they can have an understanding of what it means to be an African-American,” Gray said. “It solidifies our roots.”
Along with their scarcity, ethnic stores can have trouble reaching potential customers. Many advertise in ethnic publications. For her part, Coffey buys a full-page ad in the Black Orange, a monthly activity roster for African-Americans in Orange County.
The Golden Dreidle, one of the only independent gift shops in the county serving upward of 90,000 Jews, advertises in Jewish publications. But Shahrok Ghodsi, who operates the store with his wife Julie, said becoming known has been a struggle.
“It’s taken awhile to get the word around that we’re here,” he said. The store’s specialty is its large collection of dreidels, children’s toy tops that are used by parents to tell of Jewish tradition.
At the other Judaica store, Ben Yehuda Street in Los Alamitos, owner Vicki Flax said she has built a loyal customer base over the past six years, and sales are great.
One option for ethnic merchants attempting to develop a steady clientele but wanting to avoid high overhead costs is to operate home-based businesses.
Janice King sells African-American art prints and cards on nights and weekends from a business she runs from her Irvine home. She recently displayed her wares at an invitation-only sale at an Irvine hotel and has set up exhibits at black social events and fraternal gatherings.
King, who works by day in the math department at Rancho Santiago College, said she got the idea from compliments she received from friends who saw the artwork in her home and wondered where they could buy their own.
“We’re raising kids here, and it’s important to adorn our walls with people who reflect our culture,” she said. “I wanted to provide quality artwork to our people.”
Some day, King said she might consider renting a permanent location for her collection. But for now, she said, “I don’t know if we have enough blacks to open a gallery.”
Kathleen Croxton of Dana Point deals in the wares of an even smaller ethnic minority--Americans Indians. There are about 12,000 in Orange County, 0.6% of the population. Croxton operates her Wild Bear Trading Post just about anywhere she can set it up--at swap meets, American Indian festivals or art fairs. About one in five customers are American Indians, she said.
“Usually, people will say to me, ‘I’m a Crow’ or another tribal affiliation,” said Croxton, who counts a Blackfoot among her ancestors. “I don’t try to reach a Native American audience. They just sort of come.”
They usually buy items they associate with their culture, such as sage sticks, which emit a pleasant odor like incense. An American Indian woman recently purchased one for her son, who was dying of AIDS. “She wanted to smudge his room with it,” Croxton said.
Like many retailers, minority retailers are having a tough time during the recession. Merchants in Little Saigon and in downtown Santa Ana say that so far, their holiday sales are significantly down from last year at this time.
“People are afraid to spend money,” said Nguyen Linh, owner of Kim Long Gifts at the Asian Garden Mall. Vietnamese-Americans, he said, are more conservative in their spending habits than the majority.
Customers are choosing lower-cost items. And instead of last year’s 60% and 70% profit margins on his ceramic vases and statues, Linh said he is having to settle for 10% to 15% margins.
On 4th Street in Santa Ana, Mohommed Shair had a similar refrain. Stacking blue jeans on a table fronting the street, he lamented that last year a customer might pick up three or four pairs of jeans at a time. This year, he said, it’s one.
“They look, but they don’t buy,” he said.