Last Friday, people around the country took part in a general strike to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Here in San Luis Obispo County, hundreds of students walked out of class and many people refused to shop or spend money as part of the strike.
Impact on local restaurants and stores
Several local businesses stayed closed, including Thrifty Beaches, Corazón Cafe and SLO Cider, but for the businesses that were open, many said they didn’t notice fewer customers on Friday.
Cosimo Allegreta is a manager at the Italian restaurant Mama’s Meatballs in San Luis Obispo. He said the restaurant was open Friday, and it was a little slower than normal.
“We felt it a little bit, but not that much,” Allegreta told KCBX. He didn’t think businesses should be “punished” by missing out on sales as part of the strike.
“It was just a regular business day”
Penny Rodriguez has owned Penny’s All-American Cafe in Pismo Beach for 24 years.
She says the day before the strike, someone had posted online that they had seen ICE agents eating at her cafe, but the purported agents weren’t wearing uniforms.
According to Rodriguez, she started getting calls from people saying they would boycott her business for serving ICE agents.
By the time Friday came around, she said she’d been so consumed by this controversy that she only heard about the strike a few hours before her cafe closed.
“ It was just a regular business day, I think a lot of people didn't know about it.”
Rodriguez told KCBX she believes peaceful protests are a wonderful thing and she commends the businesses that did close. She posted a statement on Facebook clarifying her side of the story, and she says she’s starting to recover from the stress of the situation.
"It's just a really hard time,” Rodriguez said. “We just need to take a breath and just really know what your facts are before you post something.”
Restaurants already experience a winter slump
Many people in the restaurant business believe January is already one of the slowest months of the year, according to National Restaurant News.
The City of San Luis Obispo celebrated the second-ever “SLO Restaurant Month” this January. The promotion is designed to encourage people to eat-out during the slower season.
