A birthday without many guests can be a very sad occasion indeed, something Sunrise Health Foods in California had to suffer until one woman’s viral tweet got the party started.
The shop, which sells goods from essential oils to protein products, vitamins and tea to books, was celebrating its 35th birthday with owners Dr David High, a nutritionist, and Christina High, a nurse. But a very quiet start put a dampener on things.
That’s when Kayla Jackson-Ramirez arrived. The 23-year-old freelance make-up artist popped in to wish David and the store a happy birthday, only to find the party was struggling.
This is Dave. He owns Sunrise Health in Fresno, Ca. Today is his stores 35th anniversary and he was expecting people to come in. He bought cupcakes, soda & decorations and NO ONE showed up. I just got here and he brought everything out to celebrate. Can we get him so recongnition pic.twitter.com/MOSevdzqZE
— kayla (@kaylaaa_jackson) July 26, 2018
Kayla’s husband works in security for the shopping centre which houses the store, and told his wife that few people had attended the party.
“So I went over there, and by the time I got there he had already put all the cupcakes and stuff away,” Kayla told the Press Association.
“He was so happy that I got there and said: ‘Happy 35th Anniversary!’ he immediately went and got all the food so we could talk about the store and celebrate.”
He has everything from all organic natural vitamins, organic and vegan food and snacks, A HUGE selection of organic tea, vegan & organic hair and skin products all the way to organic animal products 💚 pic.twitter.com/YbqdYjPXbw
— kayla (@kaylaaa_jackson) July 26, 2018
Kayla said that she felt for David so took some pictures and posted to Twitter, and as the post went viral, business started to pick up.
“Honestly I don’t know how many people came in before hand, but once the tweet started trending about a handful of people came in and he started getting a bunch of phone calls telling him ‘congratulations’,” Kayla said.
“Every time he got off the phone his face just lit up, and in that moment I just felt so beyond happy to see how something so small could make a person so happy and change his entire day!”
Thank you everyone who is calling him 💕😭😭 I've never seen him so happy! pic.twitter.com/97tpH2kyr3
— kayla (@kaylaaa_jackson) July 26, 2018
And it sounds as though not only did Kayla’s support brighten up Sunrise Health Foods’ birthday, but that business has picked up in general since her tweet.
“(Kayla) was real nice to talk about our store,” David told the Press Association. “That was Wednesday, and Thursday we had some media coming in. It’s a little busier –
we’ve got three customers in the store now!”
Meanwhile Kayla’s message is simple: shop locally and support small business owners.
“They take so much pride in their stores,” she said. “They have so much knowledge on their products and will send you home with exactly what you need and a humble experience from the store.”