Activist Bookseller Named California's Small-Business Champion of the Year

Alzada Knickerbocker, owner of the 19-year-old Avid Reader in Davis, California, has been named the state's Small-Business Champion of the Year for 2006 by the Leadership Council of the 35,000-member National Federation of Independent Business/California (NFIB).

Every year, NFIB, a national lobbying organization with 600,000 members, selects one business owner from each of the 50 states for special recognition and presents the award at NFIB's Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C., in June. Knickerbocker is now among winners from 11 Western states in competition for an NFIB regional award.

Describing Knickerbocker's efforts on behalf of small business as "indefatigable," Martyn Hopper, state director of NFIB/California, said in a statement, "She is the biggest cannon in our arsenal of small-business advocates. She not only knows of what she speaks, she articulates it supremely and convincingly well. Countless thousands of small-business owners up and down this state have had their firms made a little more solvent thanks to the expert testimony of Alzada Knickerbocker before legislative committees."

An active member of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, Knickerbocker is also involved with the Davis Downtown Business Association, the Davis School Arts Foundation, and the International House of Davis. She and her store have been awarded numerous accolades including Best Customer Service in Yolo County, Best Independent Retailer in Yolo County, Best Bookstore in Yolo County, and Best of the Region, Editors' Choice, Solano Magazine. She has also served as a vice president of the NFIB Leadership Trust Committee and is a member of its Sacramento Area Action Council.

Knickerbocker told BTW that many affronts to small businesses have been fought over the years in the Davis community. "Every battle has some success," she said. "The [unsuccessful] campaign to keep Borders out of the downtown raised community awareness about the problems of [large chain stores] in the area."

The subtleties of sales tax implications, local community development, job creation, health insurance and workers compensation, all in relation to small, locally owned businesses versus huge national corporations, are not understood by many of those running her city, Knickerbocker said. "The arguments don't really resonate [with the city council]; they are lured by the national names."

Noting several recent victories involving developers, who in response to widespread, organized opposition to massive retail development within a few miles of the downtown are withdrawing or scaling back proposals, she said, "I've always been involved, speaking out. It feels good to win." --Nomi Schwartz