Amid nationwide economic blackout day, Sacramento's Zanzibar faces closure after 26 years
SACRAMENTO — An economic blackout was underway Friday as activists nationwide encouraged people not to spend their money at large corporations, retailers and fast-food chains for 24 hours.
The no-spend day was spearheaded by a grassroots organization called People's Union USA. They're pushing back against big corporations and high prices by encouraging people to only buy what's strictly necessary and to only shop from small businesses.
"The call isn't to boycott a single brand or a single retail outlet, but it's rather calling for consumers to shut down spending all together," said Anna Tuchman, marketing professor at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
"Increasingly, our economy is moving to really extreme dominance by large corporations," Elk Grove resident Debbie Cauble said.
The blackout comes as the popular local store Zanzibar Fair Trade is closing its doors after 26 years.
"Sales. It all comes down to sales. We have not had the patronage and the sales we need to make this viable," said Josh Varner, co-owner of Zanzibar.
Varner said that things have been different post-pandemic. Not only are they competing with large corporate retailers, but now online shopping too.
"It has completely and irrevocably altered how people spend money," he said. "They stay at home. They don't go out. They don't engage others. They do all their shopping online, and that's it."
The store was open for a private event on Friday for longtime customers.
"They can't replace what a thriving small business does, and this, I think, is the best example of that," Cauble said.
Cauble has made it a tradition to shop at the store whenever her sister is in town to visit. She said she doesn't get the same feel at larger retail stores.
Varner said that if the movement took hold sooner, maybe they'd be staying open.
"Things absolutely would've been different if those sales trends and changes in the cultural lexicon of shopping hadn't occurred," he said. "It would be a very different story for us."
Zanzibar will be open to the public on Saturday for a half-off sale as they say their final goodbyes.
People from all over the United States are participating in the economic blackout, but some economists don't expect this to have a huge impact.
