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# Employees get a break at Bayside stores, restaurants
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/employees-get-a-break-at-bayside-stores-restaurants/
- Published: 2003-03-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:41:30.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Business, Downtown, #archive-import

*Workers enjoy downtown deals*

Santa Monica merchants are making it less expensive for local workers to shop downtown this spring.

Hoping to drum up business during a typically slow time of year, almost 50 businesses have agreed to give employees of local businesses a break.

The Bayside District Corp., a non-profit that manages downtown in conjunction with the city, announced earlier this month the “Downtown Santa Monica Employee Discount Program,” which will run until May 31.

Forty-seven retailers and restaurants — from Arcana Books to Planet Funk to Zales Diamond Store — are offering discounts to Santa Monica residents and workers through the program.

The vast majority of the businesses are offering either a 10 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent discount on their goods, with some limitations.

Santa Monica workers hoping to capitalize on the discounts must show a business card or pay stub to verify their local employment.

David Munyon, managing partner of Ocean Avenue Seafood, said he has high hopes for the discount program.

“It’s such a good deal,” he said, who is encouraging his employees to take advantage of the deals at other retailers. “We all share and give back to each other and keep the business in downtown. I think that’s what we should all be doing.”

Eddie Guerboian, whose store, Readers Fine Jewelers, has been in Santa Monica for 76 years, said the program is about enhancing the community — for both businesses and employees.

“It helps our employees (to have the discounts),” Guerboian said. “They deserve it, and at the same time it helps keep dollars in Santa Monica.”

Names of participating shops are posted on Bayside’s Web site, www.down-townsm.com, and printed in the non-profit’s monthly newsletter, The Bayside Beat.

Bayside’s marketing manager Marivi Magsino said the program was created as a courtesy to businesses downtown. It is open to any merchant in the Bayside district, including those in Santa Monica Place.

“We’re trying to promote more business in a typically slow period,” said Magsino of the first-time effort. “We’re going to check it out and re-evaluate this summer, and perhaps include residents (in future discount programs).”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/030103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)