She says Amazon’s sponsorship of San Francisco’s Small Business Week is “in incredibly poor taste. Store manager Eileen McCormick helps a customer at Green Apple Books in San Francisco. Saving them is essential to preserving jobs, a tax base, neighborhood character - and joy. Small businesses like Green Apple are the beating heart of the city. The massive issues should concern anybody who cares about San Francisco and its future. A new report from the city’s small business commission with help from San Francisco State University’s economics department lays bare the challenges facing small business owners - and they stretch far beyond Amazon. Of course, Amazon’s sponsorship is just the latest aggravation for people trying to run small businesses in San Francisco, a city that has never been particularly friendly to them, but has lately seen even more pandemic-fueled hardship. “Partnering with local organizations like the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is just one of the ways we help create new opportunities for the small business community,” Friedrich said. Kelsey Friedrich, a spokesperson for Amazon, said the company is “proud” to have nearly 500,000 small and medium-size businesses selling products on its site. It’s not the first time big businesses have sponsored Small Business Week a big sponsor last year was Meta, the new name for Facebook. A spokesperson for the chamber said Fong was too busy to talk. Rodney Fong, president and CEO of the local chamber, didn’t return requests for comment on the off-putting choice of sponsor or answer questions about how much Amazon paid for the privilege. “Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer and Earth’s safest place to work,” it reads. The website promoting the week hails Amazon as a “small business champion” with a paragraph describing its supposed virtues.
The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce organizes San Francisco Small Business Week, which concluded Saturday. The manager of Green Apple Books on Clement Street says she was alarmed to learn that San Francisco’s Small Business Week is sponsored by Amazon. “It’s in incredibly poor taste,” McCormick told me. Worse yet? The email invited her to attend events titled “How to Start Selling in Amazon’s Store” and “Amazon Small Business Panel.”
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