Leila Touati
Leila Touati reports on business and change for The Tribune, focusing on how storefronts, services and local enterprises open, close and evolve across San Luis Obispo County communities.
Storefront change and retail turnover
Touati’s business coverage tracks the constant churn of national chains and big-box spaces, showing what replaces them and what stays empty. She reports on the fallout from Rite Aid’s bankruptcy, noting how closed pharmacy locations left large buildings vacant and how new tenants, including Walgreens, move into some of those former sites. She follows discount and specialty retail as new Dollar Tree and Bath & Body Works stores fill previously empty spaces, spelling out where they are opening and on what timeline.
Her work also documents seasonal retail patterns, such as Spirit Halloween stores reopening well ahead of fall and the implications for local commercial corridors. When a major grocery chain suffers an outage that temporarily shuts down stores, she covers both the shutdown and the full reopening, emphasizing operational impacts on shoppers and employees.
Across these stories she uses clear, service-oriented headlines and “take a look inside” walk-throughs to give readers a concrete sense of how these locations are changing.
Independent shops and small business resilience
Touati spends significant time with independent owners, treating their shops as case studies in small business challenges and endurance. She profiles a downtown plant shop that closes after just a year in business and explains what led to that decision, highlighting the pressures on niche retailers. She contrasts that with long-running operations such as a SLO County repair shop that services both sewing machines and vacuums and is still going strong, underscoring how specialized services can sustain a loyal customer base.
Her coverage of a vintage store moving into a new space and adding merchandise from two other spots shows how owners reconfigure their business model and partnerships to stay viable.
She reports on a new tabletop gaming store as both retail and community hub, framing it around the need for dedicated spaces where people can gather to play. In the professional services realm, she introduces new ventures such as an eye care practice offering cataract surgery, lens exchanges and surgical glaucoma care, detailing the specific offerings and positioning within the local health-care market.
Throughout these pieces she focuses on founders’ decisions, the reasons behind moves or closures, and what each change means for customers and nearby businesses.
Food, drink and hospitality ventures
Food and drink businesses are a recurring thread in Touati’s work, where she blends business reporting with vivid descriptions of concepts and menus. She covers the boom in “dirty sodas” across the county, explaining how customized soft drinks with mix-ins are driving a local popularity surge and what that means for beverage-focused shops.
Her restaurant and cafe stories range from a new cafe serving beignets and po’ boys to an ocean-view restaurant and multiple coffee projects, including a coffeehouse that moves from a trailer into a brick-and-mortar space and a new coffee shop opening right by the beach.
She reports on a hidden food truck pairing smashburgers and lobster rolls, positioning it within the area’s evolving food truck scene. In a profile of Kor Kitchen, she shows how an Afghan chef turns home cooking into a catering and pop-up business, describing how dishes are prepared at a shared kitchen facility, packaged individually and sold through a local co-op while also handling catering requests.
Her coverage of a new shave ice shop with Hawaiian flavors fits this pattern, using interior tours and detailed accounts of offerings to show how each venue contributes to the region’s dining landscape. Across these stories she treats restaurants, cafes and beverage counters as businesses first, but always ties their operations to culture, taste and the experience inside the space.
Community infrastructure, events and economic impact
Beyond storefronts and eateries, Touati reports on how institutions and infrastructure shape daily life and the local economy.
When the YMCA in San Luis Obispo is approved to run 24 hours a day, she explains how the new schedule will work and what expanded access means for members and staff. Her coverage of Highway 1’s partial reopening after Big Sur wildfires pinpoints where the road will reopen and how that affects travel and regional connectivity. She tracks how an influx of returning students changes business conditions, outlining how local organizations prepare for Cal Poly students arriving in town earlier than usual.
She also reports on growth metrics, writing about three county businesses that make a national list of fastest-growing companies and a local firm recognized for five consecutive years, framing these achievements in terms of regional economic momentum. While her primary beat is business, she occasionally covers breaking news such as a bank robbery and pursuit on Highway 101, applying her clear, factual style to fast-moving events that intersect with financial institutions and public safety.
Taken together, these stories show a reporter who treats business as embedded in infrastructure, mobility and community systems rather than as an isolated beat.
Across her portfolio, Touati’s reporting stands out for its focus on the lived impact of business decisions, whether in a repurposed big-box store, a new cafe or a long-standing repair shop. She writes in straightforward, descriptive prose, pays attention to specific locations, hours and offerings, and consistently returns to how change at the business level reshapes local routines and neighborhoods.
4 more business journalists.
Aaron Karp
Aaron Karp is distinct for connecting airline networks, airport infrastructure, air cargo and policy. He is a senior editor at Air Transport World and has covered aviation since 1999. He has also worked as an editor for cargo-focused and daily aviation publications. His real beat is how airlines and airports respond to growth, regulation, trade conditions, sustainability pressures and technology changes. He covers route planning, network development, airport capacity, infrastructure, cargo flows, trade lanes, safety, air traffic control and future technology. He reports through news, features, opinion pieces, briefings and podcasts. He uses data, executive insight and industry conference reporting to explain market changes. His work links cargo metrics and trade policy to carrier strategy, and connects infrastructure and sustainability decisions to resilience, costs and long-term growth.
Adrienne Roberts
Adrienne Roberts is a business journalist at the Detroit Free Press who covers how policy, regulation and corporate decisions affect Michigan’s cannabis market, jobs, universities and health systems. She has a sustained focus on cannabis taxes, licensing, sales, product rules, consumer safety and local tax revenue. She also reports on unemployment, worker protections, corporate settlements, hiring, higher education, student safety, housing, data centers, health care access and economic forecasts. Roberts joined the Detroit Free Press in 2020 after covering automotive retail, dealers and labor issues for The Wall Street Journal. She explains complex business and regulatory changes with data, legal detail and on-the-ground voices. Her stories focus on practical effects for workers, students, consumers and communities, showing both the numbers and the people behind them.
Alex Bronzini-Vender
Alex Bronzini-Vender is a business reporter who focuses on how economic forces and corporate decisions shape specific communities and industries. He covers business for the Washington Monthly, writing reported pieces at the intersection of commerce and public life. His work reflects the magazine’s emphasis on linking markets and money to power, policy, and everyday experience. He treats business not as balance sheets and deals but as choices that affect local realities. In “Fear and Loathing in Palo Alto,” he uses a city tied to the tech sector to examine how a powerful industry influences a community. He grounds his business beat in on-the-ground consequences rather than treating corporate and financial developments in isolation.
Alex DeMarban
Alex DeMarban stands out for tracking major energy projects over time while showing how economic shifts affect local businesses. He reports for the Anchorage Daily News on business, oil and gas, and general assignments. His coverage focuses on Alaska LNG, long-haul energy projects, mining, ports, transportation infrastructure, and the everyday businesses that keep the state running. He examines financing, tax legislation, labor agreements, regulatory approvals, timelines and costs, and connects government and corporate decisions to workers, communities and consumers. He also reports on restaurant closures, grocery stores, breweries, meaderies, parking and trade disputes. His past coverage includes an open-pit mine near the proposed Ambler road, federal port grants and competitive elections. He reports through dollar figures, project details, public records, business owners and affected workers, showing how policy and resource development play out on the ground.