Several small businesses across New Hampshire participated in a general strike on Friday in solidarity with those protesting the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. While some businesses decided to close for the day, others are donating some — or all — of their profits to organizations that advocate for immigrants’ rights.
That’s the case for Wonderland Books and Toys, an independent bookstore in Manchester. Owner Deirdre A. L. Shaw said she’s donating 10% of her profits from Friday to support an immigrant and refugee support group run by the United Church of Christ in New Hampshire.
It wasn’t an easy decision: Shaw said she was balancing being a one-employee business against what she saw as her civic responsibility.
“There are always so many potential things going on,” she said. “And as a local business owner, I can't always participate in those things. I own my store and we're a one-employee location, so being closed means there is no income for the day.”
Instead, she decided to lean into one of her goals for the business: providing resources for teachers and parents to have age-appropriate conversations about difficult topics with kids. She hosted two special story times centered around books for civic responsibility and immigration, including “Just Help!” by Sonia Sotomayor.
“Having resources for parents or for themselves is very helpful,” Shaw said. “There are so many things going on in the world that kids either hear about inadvertently or they have conversations with their friends, or they read about something, or it's a topic that's brought up at school for whatever reason. But maybe they don't get all the answers or information, or they only hear a part of it.”
Other businesses, like Brewbakers coffee shop in Keene, decided to stay open for the day Friday and donate all their profits to organizations that support immigrants.
While owner Jeff Murphy felt a responsibility to his employees, he said that the events in Minneapolis are personal to him: His sisters live in the heart of the city and helped him pick the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota as an organization that is helping immigrants with their legal representation.
“It’s heartbreaking to see what's happening in this country,” he said. "We love our country, we support our law enforcement and our service members, and trust that they can do a good job. But it's been obvious and apparent that the actions in Minneapolis have been a gross overreach and abuse of power. So we're just doing the little bit that we can.”
For other businesses, like MrSippi’s BBQ in Rochester, participating in the strike meant closing altogether on Friday. Owner Cecil Abels said it was a sacrifice, since business is slow this month and Fridays are usually busy. But he decided to participate in the strike in solidarity with other parts of the hospitality industry that have been targeted by immigration enforcement, especially in nearby Maine in recent days.
“It's going to be a financial hardship,” he said. “I've lived 42 years of not having to feel a lot of pain or sacrifice, and if we want change in this country, then things are going to get harder whether we want it to or not.”
