Nov. 15, 2026

It took me all of 10 seconds last week to say exactly what a business owner didn’t need to hear.

I had called Bobbi Clayton with one of the tasks I dread most: to ask her to say a few words about the decision to close her business. Wild Peach & Co., which she opened downtown in the Harvester Building at the beginning of the year, will close Dec. 20.

“I’m so sorry to hear you’re closing,” I told her. “I kept meaning to stop by and…”

I suspect, given her understandable reaction, that if Clayton had a few dollars for every time she has heard that, the financials for her small business would look considerably better.

Instead, she candidly told me she was working three additional jobs as she attempted to run the store, which carried merchandise from more than 50 local makers at its peak.

“It’s a lot for one person,” she said. “I tried. I did my best.”

In many ways, I know she speaks for many small and independent business owners. Running a business, especially one that is locally owned and consumer-focused, is a lot for any one person.

“It takes a lot more than the person who is running the place,” Clayton said, adding that having to close a place that generates sales for creatives is “devastating. We do need a place for people to buy people’s work.”

But we also need people to show up and shop, which I finally did on Friday afternoon. It look me less than 10 minutes to find an ideal, one-of-a-kind, affordable gift for someone on my list.

While I was there, Clayton was meeting with someone.

It turned out to be Kim Weisbrook, whose husband, Tom, died just three weeks ago. A talented photographer, his work was sold only at Wild Peach & Co. in addition to his website.

As a memorial sale, all the in-store work is now 50 percent off.

And as I watched the two women work out a plan for selling that photography, it made me even more sad that Sioux Falls is losing the sort of store that can provide a venue for selling this kind of work.

I’ve written many times about the need to support local independent businesses, especially during the holiday season. But the message feels even more urgent in recent years, especially now as I know consumers are being more watchful with their spending.

If you have been meaning to stop into a local business — as I did with this one — don’t wait. The holiday season is a critical time to generate sales, and if small businesses don’t end this year at least in the black, I know they understandably will be forced to face the same tough decision that Clayton just made.

“I wanted this space so badly for the community,” she told me. “This wasn’t ever about me.”

She paused.

“It’s OK,” she continued. “Someday it will work for somebody, maybe in a different time or place.”

It’s up to us as a community to decide if we want to be that place. In Sioux Falls, we have leaned on out-of-town visitors for a long time to help support our local commerce — and those visitors have delivered for us in a big way. But before you yourself travel elsewhere to shop or log online to a website based somewhere you likely don’t even know, look down the street. Go browse on your lunch break, if possible. Set aside a little time each weekend to explore what’s for sale locally. I was glad I did.

This week, we will start featuring a holiday season series called Shop 605. I had an immediate response from small businesses when we offered this advertising opportunity last week. You can learn more below as slots are filling up fast.

It all makes a difference. Anything you spend, any way you spread the word.

As Clayton told me: “It’s 50 cents that keeps us open. It really, really is. If you’ve got the $20 or the $50, thank you, but also, thank you for the $3. We really did have something for everybody … but I don’t think enough people came in to see that.”

Feature your local business in upcoming SiouxFalls.Business holiday promotion