Small Business Takes Big Blow From Thieves In Downtown Sacramento
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Thieves targeted and ransacked a specialty food store in Downtown Sacramento, leaving behind thousands of dollars in damage its owners say they can't afford.
Anyone who owns a small business knows about the daily challenges, the small struggles and the late nights. Employees admit after the break-in, there was some fear they may not be able to recover.
One at a time, jar after jar, each one gets a label and each one gets a number, all by hand. For Estrella Gomez and her very few co-workers—four including the owner—it's a time-consuming and painstaking process.
On this night in the kitchen, a converted auto garage, Estrella is working late to replace what was stolen.
Sometime late on Tuesday, someone broke into Preservation And Co., a specialty food store in Downtown Sacramento. They cleaned out the register, grabbed laptops, cash, cameras and T-shirts and even jars of pickles.
In all, $8,000 of damage was done—a devastating blow for a small business.
"It just seems as soon as we're OK, then a little setback, but this is by far our biggest setback," she said.
The company is in the running for a grant from Whole Foods that was supposed to pay for an automatic labeler. Now, if they win, they'll likely still be labeling by hand as the grant will go to cover their losses.
"We do we have a lot of nights with our buddy here, but we've dealt with it up till now," Gomez said.
Already people are reaching out to help with kind words and a dusty, but working, replacement register.
"Just keep your heads up and everything, and we can't cry over spilled milk," she said.
They're hoping the late hours pay off with enough product to open for business on Friday.
