For the second year in a row, shops and eateries within the city’s Historic Westside neighborhood have produced a holiday buying guide that urges shoppers to get their gifts from “the cultural corazón of San Antonio.”
The guide, part of the City of San Antonio’s larger Buy Local initiative, was “absolutely helpful” last year in bringing shoppers into the district, said Alma Piña, manager of Guadalupe Latino Bookstore & Gifts, located at the corner of Guadalupe and Brazos streets.
The bookstore had only opened a couple months before Christmas last year, she said, so the guide helped bring both locals and international visitors, many of whom also wanted to sample the neighborhood’s fare and check out the iconic murals. The QR code Piña kept near the register was especially helpful, she said, as it allowed visitors to pull up a PDF version of the guide on their phones.
While most of the businesses in the guide are clustered around Buena Vista and Commerce streets, at least one can be visited from the couch: In The Weeds, a “premium botanic” offering skin care and candles. Goods are produced and shipped from the online-only store on the West Side.
Buy Local San Antonio began in 2019 as a partnership with Maestro Entrepreneurship Center, which continues its own Buy Local Grow SA effort.
In 2022, the city commissioned a study of Buy Local, with an eye toward growing a more robust “buy local culture,” according to a presentation from the Economic Development Department to a City Council committee in May.
The study found that while an overwhelming majority of residents reported that they believe it is important to shop locally and support San Antonio businesses, just 35% said they purchased goods from a local business at least once a week.
Just a 10% shift in market share to independently owned businesses from large retail chains would have a $267 million impact on local earnings and $720 million overall impact on the local economy, the study found.
Or as Ramiro Gonzales, CEO of economic development nonprofit Prosper West, put it Friday morning at the shopping guide’s launch, “When you support small businesses, particularly on the West Side, you’re not just supporting that small business, you’re supporting a family.”
Almost a third of the money spent at local businesses is recirculated through the local economy, according to the study. It’s often better for the environment, too, as goods don’t travel as far as when they’re ordered from Amazon.
The Historic West Side is one of a handful of distinct geographic areas to participate in Buy Local. Centro San Antonio launched Holidays on Houston Street this year, hoping to lure shoppers to visit local businesses with lights, decorations and themed entertainment. Shoppers will see the city’s Buy Local logo at shops within La Villita and Historic Market Square, as well.
In a video address posted last month, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, a Buy Local San Antonio t-shirt pulled over his dress shirt and tie, urged shoppers to take advantage of the Buy Local Savings Pass via a free app-like website that offers discounts at local businesses. Right now there are only a handful of businesses offering discounts, but a spokeswoman with the city said more will be added.
Supporting San Antonio’s unique culture is another reason to buy local, organizers said Friday morning. Whether that’s checking out the instruments and costumes at Mariachi Connection or visiting the art studio of MujerArtes Cooperativa de Esperanza, where local women, some of whom are immigrants, create unique clay pieces for sale.
Tucked behind a pair of historic casitas at 816 S. Colorado St. the cooperative’s studio offers “wonderful pieces, telling the story about culture, about family,” said Adriana Netro, one of the artists who first began working with clay there seven years ago, and who now would like to open her own business.
Come visit, she said, and see what women like her are creating. “You’re going to fall in love.”
