I will give you the advice I gave my kids when they were your age: For smaller places that are not chains with online applications, you must go in, ask to speak to the manager or owner, and leave a resume with your application.

Then - and this is the important part - you must go back in person to follow up. You cannot call and leave a message (no one will get it). At your age and with no experience, persistence is key. You might not be better than the other 16 year-old applicants with no experience, but you are the 16 year-old standing in front of them.

I gave this advice to my son saying "What sets you apart from the other applicants with no experience? Nothing! You need to go back." He responded "If they want me they'll call me". And of course they did not and he never got a job.

I gave this advice to my daughter, and on her second visit to a diner where she'd applied, she was hired and worked there three years, and even a bit on college breaks. They had hired someone older three weeks earlier (right around the time of her first application) and he wasn't working out. Her second visit happened to be when they had just let him go.

I know in an era where job apps are done online and people text and don't talk to each other, this sounds like antiquated advice from a Boomer. But some things about the way small businesses hire has not changed. Good luck!