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On a recent Monday, workers at Gonzalez Market in west Salt Lake City’s Glendale neighborhood were bustling about the grocery store, restocking shelves, preparing meat at the butcher counter and taking money orders.
But they weren’t just hefting boxes of imported Mexican treats. They also carried something heavier: fears that they could be caught up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid.
Their bosses, market owners Julia Diaz and Sergio Gonzalez, said none of their employees have quit but that President Donald Trump’s deportation threats and ongoing economic volatility have sown uncertainty at the store and among its customers.
“It does affect a lot because now, if people do not go out to work, they will not go out to shop,” Diaz said in Spanish. “They will not go out to eat either.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sergio Gonzalez, Julia Diaz and Jonas Gonzalez, at Gonzalez Market, where business has dropped off since President Donald Trump took office.
Customers, whether they are documented or not, have been shopping and spending less at Latino markets and restaurants since Trump’s inauguration, according to multiple business owners in the Salt Lake Valley. The downturn affects companies already grappling with inflation and economic turbulence.
Gonzalez Market, which has been stationed near the corner of Redwood Road and California Avenue for 14 years, sells grocery goods, meat and fresh produce, while offering services like money orders and remittances. It also has an attached kitchen and seating area.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Aisles of food at Gonzalez Market. Sales have slipped at the Glendale store since President Donald Trump took office.
Gonzalez said the company saw its sales plunge by 30% to 40% in the first month after Trump’s inauguration as shoppers cut back. That may only get worse, he believes, if Trump’s tariffs and other economic policies take hold, and the Glendale market is forced to hike prices on some products by as much as 25%.
‘I hope there is enough business’
Farther south, Ingrid Santaella owns and runs South Salt Lake’s Sabor Latino restaurant, where, she says, about 80% of her customers are fellow Latinos.
Santaella’s eatery at 168 E. 3300 South has been dishing out Latino fusion cuisine, including Venezuelan, Colombian and Guatemalan, for 11 years in the Salt Lake Valley.
She estimates her sales have dropped by 40% to 50% as the administration’s policies have changed her customers’ spending habits.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ingrid Santaella says her South Salt Lake restaurant, Sabor Latino, has seen sales drop by up to half.
“People are afraid. They are afraid to go out. They are afraid to buy,” Santaella said during an interview in Spanish. “... So, for us at least, I hope there is enough business.”
Santaella said two staffers recently quit because they didn’t want to risk working somewhere where they could be targeted by ICE. She said all of her employees are documented, but she still has had to reduce the restaurant’s hours.
Inflation, especially the price of eggs and other necessities, hasn’t helped either as rising costs sap her business’s bottom line and drain her customers’ wallets.
‘Atmosphere’ is not conducive
Rancho Markets CEO Eli Madrigal said customers in her nine Utah stores echoed the trend toward more “conservative” customer spending.
In Rancho’s case, Madrigal said, it’s not that they’re showing up less. It’s that they have less money to spend. She believes customers are earning less money, losing work or not going to jobs for fear of immigration enforcement.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jesus Cortes stocks the vegetable department at Rancho Market at North Temple and 900 West in 2018.
Her employees, however, keep clocking in.
“The atmosphere of what is occurring is not conducive,” Madrigal wrote in a text, “but our employees’ priority is to continue serving the public as we have done in the past.”
Despite the turmoil, Santaella said her Sabor Latino restaurant has weathered tough times before, and she vowed to do all she could to keep serving meals.
Does she think the restaurant might have to shut down?
“Let’s hope not. Definitely, my hope is no. It is a family business,” Santaella said. “We have struggled a lot and gone through a lot of things, like COVID and all this, to keep it afloat. So, we will work and fight. Why not?”
