The expectations for this Black Friday in southern California are positive, after the effects faced by merchants on the other side of the border when the border was restricted to non-essential trips.
In an interview with Kenia Zamarripa, executive director of International Trade Affairs of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, who was at the 3rd. Borderless Business Congress organized by Deitac, she mentioned that a recovery from the economic spill is expected for the so-called Black Friday weekend.
“As we know, when the restrictions to cross were in place, the most affected were hotels, stores, restaurants, especially everything south of the San Diego Bay such as Chula Vista, San Ysidro, so they do expect an economic benefit that will help them a recovery,” she noted.
The directive explained that the closure of the border as a result of the Covid pandemic, caused the definitive closure of more than 200 businesses, only in San Ysidro, a figure released in November of last year.
Hence, the expectations for the Black Friday weekend are very good, she said, since this period is celebrated every year during the third week of November, in the United States, days in which merchandise is offered with significant discounts and promotions.
“This allows all those families that depended on these jobs to start to recover and regain the economic stability they had,” she said.
Agents such as the San Diego tourism authority, added Kenia Zamarripa, have reported that the most important economic benefit for San Diego in the commerce sector is the product, precisely, of one-day visitors from Mexico, that is, residents of Baja California who cross for the purpose of shopping.
The board of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce stressed that the economy between Tijuana and San Diego is so interconnected that during the temporary closure of the border in 2019, when a caravan of migrants arrived, just on the dates of the Black Friday, caused losses of almost 8 million dollars.
“We know that there is already more movement, the spaces that were left empty (in San Ysidro), have already been rented out again, we do not know if they are the same families or if they changed their business, and what we see is that jobs are being recovered, which is the most important thing,” she concluded.
