BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 The lingering effects of the recent government shutdown are still being felt at local grocery stores \u2014 especially small, family-owned businesses like Blue Fig Farms, where owners say customer traffic dropped significantly throughout November. Now, they\u2019re hoping shoppers will return.<\/p>\n
Blue Fig Farms, located on Stockdale Highway, has been serving the Bakersfield community for just about a year. But owner Kahlid Mansour says uncertainty surrounding the shutdown began hurting business long before it officially began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess people were scared \u2014 not knowing how long the government shutdown would last,\u201d Mansour explained.<\/p>\n
By the end of October, rumors of a looming shutdown had already slowed sales. Then the impact intensified: the Trump administration froze funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP \u2014 known in California as CalFresh.<\/p>\n
More than 110,000 Kern County residents rely on CalFresh benefits. For Mansour, the loss was immediate. He says CalFresh shoppers account for roughly a quarter of Blue Fig Farms\u2019 profits.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur sales dropped almost 30%. When people finally got their benefits back, things got a little better \u2014 but spending still isn’t where it used to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Walking through the aisles, Mansour points to items that haven\u2019t been moving: canned goods, household staples, and cuts of meat that typically sell faster during the holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople weren’t buying in bulk. They were just picking up the essentials they needed to get by,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With sales still lagging, Mansour worries he may eventually need to cut employee hours again. For now, he\u2019s doing what he can to keep customers walking through the doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to survive right now is to lower our prices, shrink our profit margins, and put items on sale \u2014 just to get people in,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Although the government is slowly reopening, Mansour says the damage to small businesses has been done \u2014 and recovery won\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got our hands crossed, hoping things will get better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As the community works to bounce back, local owners emphasize that one of the most meaningful ways residents can help during an economic slowdown is simple: shop local.<\/p>\n
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 The lingering effects of the recent government shutdown are still being felt at local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,155,153,152,162],"class_list":["post-52892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-kern-county-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}