DOUGLAS, Ariz. (KGUN) — The City of Douglas has a growing number of small businesses and entrepreneurs, helping the city's economic development.
In many cases, Douglas residents have decided to open businesses after seeing a need in their community that they could help remedy. Zheyla Baltierrez, owner of Vestersi Bene, 933 G Ave., sells school uniforms and scrubs because there wasn't a local option. She opened her store five years ago, and says not only did her store provide products to the community, but jobs as well.
“Douglas is a small community," Baltierrez said. "It's a wonderful place to live to raise your kids, so keeping it local means that there's going to be job opportunities that we're able to provide."
She says the more jobs that are created at that local level, the more likely people are to stay in the community.
“Supporting local helps us keep jobs in Douglas," Baltierrez said. "By keeping jobs here, [it] helps our community grow. If we don’t have jobs keeping local, then our people are going to be moving out.”
Ralph Robles, CEO of the Douglas Business Network, says it takes years for a business to become established in the community. Some business owners close their doors before their one-year anniversary.
“The first year is always going to be the hardest," he said. "It might take a couple years. I want to say it takes three to five years for businesses in our community to succeed.”
Many of the business owners in town opened their store, despite having a full time job, because they see an opportunity to fill a need in the community. Joel Camacho, Co-Owner Luna de Cobre, says he was willing to take more work because he's helping his hometown.
"Here in Douglas (it’s) kind of hard to have a business, but I think we need to start slowly coming back and try investing in our own town,” he said.
But keeping the doors open in a town reliant on tourists can be hard.
“The world economy right now, it's been a lot more difficult," Robles said. "I hear I've been here now on a week-to-week basis of 'what can I do better for my business?' and in all honesty, right now is just trying to survive.”
There still are some vacant buildings on G Avenue. Robles says there's fewer of them than in previous years, which seems to be a good sign—now locals say they just want to see a consistent number of shoppers coming through the Douglas streets.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
