More than 40 Black-owned businesses are slated to be featured in the Afro City Marketplace at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. The event, titled “Black @ The Mall,” will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Nov. 29 and 30.
“Guest vendors will join us in a small business revolution,” said organizer and Afro City creator and founder Rwanda Ray. “We’ll share each other’s customers.”
Free food, drinks and desserts to celebrate the holidays will be featured at the event, designed to provide vendors an affordable retail space to display and sell their wares.
Participants can RSVP at AfroCityMarketplace.com. Those who RSVP will receive a 10% discount at the register. They will also receive reminders for all Afro City events, including fashion shows.
“We started this because a lot of businesses are losing business,” Ray added. “My goal is to get 50 or more of us under one roof.”
Vendor spaces were still available at this writing. The site is charging $50 for table and chair space; and there are four 9’ by 9’ booths at $100 per day. Ray is looking forward to having retail guests pop up and try out the space during the two day event to build up their customer base.
Afro City is not a consignment store and Ray is proud to say that the site has a lot of regular shoppers. “Afro City happened about this time in 2022,” Ray said, noting the entire space is 15,000 square feet altogether, allowing for vendors on one side and 4,000 square feet of rental space on the other. It has hosted a slew of special events, including artists panel talks and after parties during the annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival.
“They rent it out in February from me,” she said. “That brings us a lot of business and we do really well. It helps to sustain us through the year” The space also hosts fashion shows and most recently a baby shower for a community member. “This mall is a little slower than most,” Ray acknowledges. But Ray admits she’s still a believer and hopes that the Black Friday event will be the start of a “small business revolution.”
All three of the bigger businesses, the mall’s anchor stores, have left in recent years. Walmart was gone in 2016, Sears left in 2019 and after the pandemic, which had adverse effects on all of the retail industry, Macy’s closed in 2023.
Ray urged mall owners to post a “still open” sign. More recently, she and her friends actively promoted the plaza during the popular “Taste of Soul” event, waving faux “protest” signs urging attendees to “Make Crenshaw Mall great again. Support a Black business.”
“People remember the mall from growing up,” Ray said, noting that at Afro City’s booth on the boulevard, visitors asked about the mall’s status as her team gave away hats and T-shirts. “In February, they (mall owners) got approval to start building condos and apartments. Where Sears tires used to be, and around the edges.”
In 2021, Harridge Development Group bought the mall from a Chicago private equity fund for about $111 million. The company also bought the Macy’s building.
Harridge plans to build housing near Albertsons and make other conversions, including offices and a possible school while keeping the mall operating, with shops and restaurants getting support from residents and office workers. The plaza plans to employ local workers, enter into contracts with women and minority-owned enterprises and use union construction labor.
Ray insists that community support for Afro City and the other businesses in the plaza is even more vital in the future, taking into account the political atmosphere since the elections. “Supporting each other going into 2025, consciously deciding to support Black brands, putting aside a certain amount to support Black business in our community, it’s important.” Ray said. “Bringing our money together, there’s power in that, even with all the nonsense taking place.” A date has not yet been set for the next month’s Black @ the Mall event. For additional information, email vendorspaces@afrocitymarketplace.com.