Let’s Have A Party!
By Greg L | 1 April 2008 | Local Economy, Blogs | 17 Comments
The folks over at 9500 Liberty antibvbl have joined together in an effort to support the business community in Prince William County by having a party at El Portal restaurant in Woodbridge this Friday. This is a good idea, and I encourage readers to go. I understand the food is great, and it’s hard to beat folks like Alana Almeda (admin at antibvbl), Katherine Gotthardt (domain owner of antibvbl), and Zoe Vitter (who I believe posts as “juturna”) for interesting conversation partners. It should be a very interesting evening, and if my schedule can allow this, I’d like to pitch in and help as well.
Note: Zoe’s husband is claiming this isn’t the case: see comment thread
I’d like to do one better for this business community. Having a few parties to help drum up business for those who previously relied on patronage by illegal aliens in order to be successful might be helpful to a few select businesses in the short term. In the longer term what will really help restore these businesses to profitability would be a means to make the products and services these businesses provide appeal to a broader community, which would provide them with a more stable, and likely more affluent customer base. What helped establish these businesses was a narrow catering to an unstable economic audience, but what can really make these businesses viable is not the pity of a handful of people who show up once in a great while, but the long-term loyalty of a customer base that will frequent a business on a regular basis.
My first impression is that these businesses might benefit from ensuring that their employees can proficiently speak English. Nothing makes a business less appealing to American consumers than difficulties communicating with employees. Secondly, ensuring that customers are effectively invited to explore the unique products and services a business offers is critical, and businesses like this one which provides a different cultural experience should make their offerings understandable to American consumers. Menus, for example, not only should be available in English, but the offerings which Americans may not be familiar with should have descriptions that help those of us who don’t know a poblano from a papusa understand what the choices are and encourage a little bit of adventure. Other services that provide a different ethnic experience have understood this and done rather well reaching out to a broader consumer market. We’ve seen Asian restaurants, for example, demonstrate that gaining appeal from a broad consumer segment isn’t all that difficult and can yield strongly positive results.
Another part of this equation is marketing. Marketing dollars are scarce when business is sagging, but those that are available have to be spent wisely. You can’t broaden a customer base by exclusively advertising in a language used by a shrinking market segment. It’s time for many of these businesses to shift their focus from scrambling for market dominance within a shrinking community that primarily speaks Spanish. The Spanish language signage, advertising, and outreach for many of these businesses are not going to help them diversify their clientele and give them a stable customer base, much less a larger one. Appealing to the broader community with marketing efforts is doubtless a wiser use of marketing dollars than continuing to micro-target the Spanish-speaking community.
Another element in this mix is the restoration of nearby residential areas, many of which have declined due to rampant residential overcrowding, much of which now is vacant. Restoring these communities will help make them more appealing to homebuyers, which will require efforts by the community to clean up trash, restore landscaping, enhancing the “curb appeal” of some of the homes that took a beating from the overcrowding they were subjected to in the past, discouraging loitering, and effective control of on-street parking. Nothing chases buyers away more quickly that a neighborhood that looks bad, and neighborhood appearance plays a big role in determining the market value of residential properties. There are already some efforts in the Woodbridge area underway, but few of these are happening in the areas that need additional care and attention the most.
So while an effort to help a business owner by drumming up his business for an evening is a without a doubt good thing, perhaps a more effective thing to do is to help address the longer-term economic issues that are a challenge to the business community. I’d be interested to see what readers might propose, and am pretty confident that a more realistic approach here might ultimately accomplish much more than this laudable, yet perhaps naive attempt will yield. Many of us would get a lot of personal satisfaction from helping a part of our local business community effectively transition from relying on illegal aliens for their profitability, to providing goods and services that will appeal to the broader consumer market which we are a part of.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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17 Comments
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It’s the free market. Businesses catering to particular constituencies come and go. That’s the nature of our economy. That’s why we have K-Mart and Neman Marcus. Each has a particular target audience. I dread a “one size fits all” world where we lack choices.
El Portal restaurant probably will away because it lost its target customer base; however, it will be replaced by a new business targeting “what’s next.”
I understand the cook at El Portal is no longer suffering from Typhoid Fever, also know as the “Salvadoran flu”. So go and dig in!
Greg, not sure where you get your info but I seriously doubt that my wife is “juturna” or has any involvement with AntiBVBL.net. In fact I want over to the site and checked the comments from “juturna” and a number of things that individual said make it clear that “juturna” couldn’t be my wife. Anyone going to the dinner party Friday evening expecting to see her there is going to be disappointed!
Greg, since my last comment I have confirmed that “juturna” is not my wife (by simply asking her). In fact she had no knowledge of the AntiBVBL site until I asked her about as she does not make a habit of reading any blogs. I am not sure why you would think that “juturna” is my wife or decide to publicly (and falsely) suggest that she is.
Additionally, although my wife is an excellent conversationalist, I don’t believe that the two of you have actually had an opportunity to speak…
I’m totally confused. Is this a support of illegals or a protest???
Slick “I’m totally confused. Is this a support of illegals or a protest???”
Slick, i imagine it’s in support of illegals. my husband and i have had the same experiences of others here. we lived in Texas for 3 years, love authentic Mexican food (NOT Chi-Chi’s, On the Border, Don Pablos). and we have tried many of the Mexican restaurants in the county. but we have always been made to feel unwelcome. even BEFORE the Supervisors proposed the intiative, i’m talking going back 10 years. so, unfortunately, if these businesses sink with the absence of illegal immigrant population, i’m sorry, but i did try to support these businesses. we were made to feel very unwelcome. we didn’t go back, and we tried at least 20 different restaurants. it was clear that they only wanted Hispanic customers. so be it. the food was delicious, the attitude was extremely cold. i can’t find it in myself to be sorry now for the choices these business owners made.
Who wants to go with me and sell popsicles out of a cart? I made a killing last week at the Hi-Mart!!!
Had Enough said on 1 Apr 2008 at 7:50 pm:
Who wants to go with me and sell popsicles out of a cart? I made a killing last week at the Hi-Mart!!!
I’m curious as to why you linked your name to www.chrisroyse.com.
I’ve begun collecting trophy sized cucarachas…..I just may have to check out the restaurant.
Can Illegals get liquor license for restaurants? Can they get business licenses? How about the ABC board show up for the party and check the bartenders for ID as well as the servers. What is the rule in Virginia? 18 years old to serve or 21? If they can’t prove it what happens then? Just some random thoughts.
Did 9500 and antibvbl formally merge or is that just more sensational “news” from Greg?
why are they suprised? they should have anticipated a crackdown, And even mainstream mexican restaurant’s discriminate, I went into the Sudley Chipotle the other day with a Guatemalan friend and although we both asked for extra chicken, They only charged me. Racism is a two way road.
Benton said on 2 Apr 2008 at 7:53 am:
Did 9500 and antibvbl formally merge or is that just more sensational “news” from Greg?
9500 Liberty are the ones that connected the two.
Dave in PWC: Not likely. At least in Fairfax all you do to get a business license is fill out a form and pay a hefty fee (many based on a percentage of gross sales, not net profits). Having had a business license myself for 19 years, I have never been asked to prove my citizenship or even my personal identity for that matter. While I don’t have an ABC license, I would imagine they operate in much the same manner. Recent experience has shown that the ABC pretty much does what it wants to, so who knows. IMHO it would be a great idea if localities would require proof of citizenship to obtain a business license and/or liquor license.
I will be at Potomac High School for the SJHS Lacrosse game on Friday. The game should be over by 7 pm. Anyone care to meet me at the restaurant for a late dinner?
Gidget, you believe that only citizens (and not green-carded legal resident aliens) should be allowed to have business licenses? Or people under TPS for that matter? Just native-born or naturalized citizens?
You stated: “great idea if localities would require proof of citizenship to obtain a business license and/or liquor license.”
Gidget,
Thanks for the info. It is my opinion that in order to have a liquor license or serve liquor in a restaurant/bar that that person be a legal citizen or someone with a green card.
In Rhode Island where I recently lived for 17 years the towns only allow a certain number of restaurant/bar liquor licenses and they get sold with the business or sold whenever the business goes under. A recent bar closure netted the owner $500,000 for his license. The state also only allow 1 “ABC” store per 10,000 residents and you have to buy your beer and wine there as well. And believe it or not there are a couple of “dry” towns near Providence that don’t allow alcohol to be sold in the town at all. But there is a huge liquor store right at the town border…