A major moment at Coachella quickly turned into uncertainty for a San Antonio small business owner.<\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Just days ago, Melissa Rojas was in California representing San Antonio on a bigger stage than ever before.<\/p>\n
The owner of \u201cChasing Camila,\u201d a brand named after her daughter, had been invited by Karol G\u2019s team to take part in a Coachella-related market in Palm Desert. It was the kind of opportunity many small business owners work years to reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just an amazing experience to be able to take my product and showcase them over there,\u201d Rojas said.<\/p>\n
Her designs, known for their bold colors and cultural influence, were connecting with new customers, and for a moment, everything felt like it was lining up.<\/p>\n
But that momentum didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
On her way back to Texas, Rojas got unexpected news: the retail space she relied on in San Antonio had suddenly and permanently closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I got on my flight, I got the word that my physical space was abruptly and permanently closed,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The closure came at a critical time.<\/p>\n
Fiesta season is one of the busiest, and most profitable, times of the year for local vendors. For Rojas, it\u2019s when months of preparation typically turn into a major portion of her income.<\/p>\n
Instead, she came home to uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I didn\u2019t get a chance to kind of enjoy it. I kind of felt like I was brought down back to reality,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rojas says she still doesn\u2019t have clear answers about what happens next, especially when it comes to lost sales and inventory already in the store before it shut down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know what the answer is to anything,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With little time to react, fellow vendors and friends stepped in, packing up her merchandise before she even landed back in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Now, instead of relying on a storefront, Rojas is shifting her entire business model, at least for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I have pop-ups every day… I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve had a moment to process what I\u2019m going to do next,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pop-ups across the city, temporary setups, and social media updates have become her main way of staying afloat during one of the most important sales seasons of the year.<\/p>\n
Rojas, a single mother, says the loss of a physical space isn\u2019t just about convenience, it\u2019s about stability.<\/p>\n
It was a place where customers could shop her designs in person, even when she was traveling or juggling other responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s navigating what comes next in real time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is the time to rely on each other and just kind of ask for help if you need it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For now, that support from customers, fellow vendors, and the San Antonio community is what\u2019s keeping \u201cChasing Camila\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n
Even as the future of her business remains uncertain, one thing hasn\u2019t changed: the name behind it.<\/p>\n
A brand built for her daughter, now being carried forward, one pop-up at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major moment at Coachella quickly turned into uncertainty for a San Antonio small business owner. SAN ANTONIO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-254159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}