Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 3, No. 40 - October 7, 2021
Inside
This Issue
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Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................2
Finance..................................3
Hawthorne............................3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals.................................6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
AM Clouds/
PM Sun
68˚/56˚
Saturday
Sunny
67˚/55˚
Sunday
Sunny
72˚/57˚
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Featuring the Weekly Newspapers of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale
El Camino College Joins Forces
to Train Aerospace Workers
El Camino College has joined with Red Rocks Community College near Denver to announce a first-in-the-nation community college collaboration to create the “Space, Cyber & Supply Talent Development
Center” (SCSTDC). The partnership bridges two different space hubs and maximizes opportunities for partnerships with stakeholders that share economic and workforce development goals in STEM and the
aerospace industry. Both colleges have shown strong results in aligning classes with jobs and helping people obtain workplace relevant experience. By working together, El Camino College and Red Rocks
Community College are fostering an ambitious plan that could serve as a national model. Photo courtesy El Camino College.
Kelly Burner is Anticipating a
Profitable Holiday Season
By Duane Plank
Photos courtesy of Kelly Burner
With the Holiday season quickly approaching
and, cross your fingers, the COVID-19 scourge
continuing to abate, businesses big and small
are looking to the Holiday selling season to
bounce back after the virus put a damper on
most companies’ profits during the Fall and
Winter of 2020.
El Segundo’s Kelly Burner, the founder, and
owner of Kelly’s Beach Hut: Coastal Gifts and
Such, is one such entrepreneur who is anticipating
The Beach Hut’s Kelly Burner.
the possibilities of the next three months.
I dropped by Burner’s store, which is located
at 204 West Grand Avenue in our downtown
district, on a recent warm, “beachy” afternoon,
and spoke to the mother of five about the
genesis of her store.
The first iteration of Kelly’s Beach Hut
began in January of 2016 when she ran a
small boutique out of her back house. She said
her wares were available for sale at a kiosk
in the Manhattan Village Mall the next year.
Continuing her trajectory towards owning and
running her own brick-and-mortar business,
she returned to El Segundo and next ran her
burgeoning business from “a small space” in
the back of Tyler Surfboards.
Finally, in September of 2019, Burner moved
into her own store space, right as the holiday
shopping season was heating up.
Although Burner was able to make the deal
for the brick-and-mortar store, she knew she
had tough sledding ahead, because the space
that she was settling into was in a state of
disrepair, “disgusting,” Burner said. Burner
noted that the building she currently resides
in had been vacant for the prior two years and
needed more than a cosmetic touching-up.
Once the building was spruced up, and the
doors opened to the public, “We had a great
Holiday season,” Burner said, “and then COVID
happened.” Some small businesses have been
able to weather the COVID storm, embracing
innovative strategies to satisfy their customers
in a time of jabs and masks. And some have
relied on juicing sales through creating a robust
Internet presence.
When COVID started shutting down businesses
all over the map, she said that instead
of keeping the doors open every day, her
daughter Erin, who just had a baby on Sept. 9,
making Burner a first-time grandmother, came
up with the idea to leverage the power of the
Internet. To keep the customer traffic flowing
and adhere to social-distancing requirements,
potential customers were able to book one-hour
in-store appointments online.
Erin’s idea worked perfectly to drive business
in a trying environment. “We got slammed,”
Kelly said. She said that the success of the
2019 Holiday sales season carried the business
through the darkest COVID hours. She said
last holiday season was “really, really good,”
but then the Delta variant of the virus reared
its ugly head, and LA County pivoted, and the
powers-that-be felt that more severe restrictions
and mandates were again warranted.
Burner said it has been challenging for
her to stay ahead of the retail game, as businesses
big and small are whip-sawed by the
ever-changing regulations they are forced to
work under. Unlike some businesses, Burner
said that, while she has an online presence, an
exceedingly small percentage of her customers
order online. This is OK with her because
when an online order is placed and fulfilled,
Burner said, the resultant “shipping kills me,”
slicing and dicing her profit margin.
For her type of store, she said, people want
to see the product in-person, not peer at a
picture on a website. She feels her customers
are loyal to her because her products are
“quality. Everything in here, I pick.” She does
collaborate with vendors like Mudpie brand
home-and kitchen goods, as well as Huntington
Beach’s California Seashell. But she is always
looking to help out local artists, and she allows
them to display their wares in her store and
hopefully generate sales, which equates to a
solution where everyone benefits.
“I feel good supporting local, I really do,”
she said, “and it is good karma for me.”
Jodie Davies of Next Session and Buff Junkie
is one such local artisan who places her wares
at the Beach Hut, selling both rings made from
recycled wetsuits and resin and items from the
Buff Junkie clothing line.
Davies, an El Segundo resident, said Burner
is adept at highlighting the talents and efforts
of local creators. “She is a friend now, for sure.
Just a good person, what you see is what you
get,” Davies said. “She is all about her family,
all about her community. I owe a lot to Kelly.”
Benny Au is the President of Operations of
Improper Etiquette. His company sells hats
and T-shirts at the Beach Hut. He said that his
environmentally conscious brand “really cares
about sustainability” and that displaying their
See Kelly Burner, page 4