Small Businesses Say Holiday Shopping Season Could Determine If They Stay Open Or Close For Good: ‘We Need Your Business 100%’
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Many stores that are usually packed on Black Friday saw a lot less foot traffic this year, which is just another punch to the gut for small businesses.
For many, sales in the next month could determine whether or not they have to close their doors in the new year.
West Side Kids on Amsterdam Avenue has been in business for 39 years, but this Black Friday has been very different from years past.
“There’s usually some kind of energy in here that’s everyone is getting excited about the holidays and people are doing some shopping, but we’re just not seeing it,” said Jennifer Bergman, president of West Side Kids.
Bergman says over the summer, the store was doing 25% of what it normally does in sales.
Now, she says they’ve “improved to doing half of what we normally do, but that’s not sustainable.”
RELATED STORY — Black Friday Crowds Smaller, But Some Shoppers Still Out To Score Deals
Around the corner at John Koch Antiques, owner John Koch says, “Eighty percent of our business is television and movies’ set decoration, and though that’s come back, it’s come back with, under a sort of new structure with reduced budgets.”
Sarah Williams owns Rituals and Ceremony in Brooklyn, which specializes in home goods and self-care products.
“Unfortunately, there are some stores that, on our block, that had to shut down. And so thankfully, we were able to pivot to online,” Williams said.
RELATED STORY — Message From Small Businesses To Holiday Shoppers: Buy Local
According to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the pandemic forced 41% of Black businesses to close for good, compared to only 17% of white-owned businesses.
Sarah Williams owns Rituals and Ceremony in Brooklyn, which specializes in home goods and self-care products. (Credit: CBS2)
There’s a push to support small businesses and, specifically, Black-owned businesses on Black Friday.
Rapper Wyclef Jean wrote a jingle for Google urging people to shop Black on Black Friday.
“You could go to Google Map and just type in ‘Black-owned businesses’ in the area that you in,” Jean said.
A Brooklyn couple also runs the website Black-Owned Brooklyn, which features local businesses and a holiday gift guide.
- For more, visit blackownedbrooklyn.com/gift-guide.
Anyone who can’t make it to the stores in-person is urged to check out their websites and shop online.
“Just using us as an emergency or last minute is not gonna work. We need your business 100%,” Bergman said.
Otherwise, they may not be here next holiday season.
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November 28, 2020 at 05:29AM
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