Shoppers urged to look at local businesses
GREENWICH — Louise Joseph remembers walking down Greenwich Avenue at the start of the pandemic, seeing the normally vibrant street mostly deserted.
“A lot of the small businesses were ... just closing up,” Joseph said. “It was a ghost town. It was the saddest thing ever.”
The pandemic and the closings it precipitated were disquieting for everyone. For Joseph, who for the past several years had run her own small business, Dough Girls Pizza, a Greenwich-based pizza truck, COVID-19 had the potential to upend her life.
“At the beginning of the pandemic it was a little scary — a lot scary — not knowing what to do,” Joseph recalled Tuesday on a webinar about the impor
tance of supporting small businesses hosted by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz.
Joseph said she realized early on that she’d have to learn to adapt to the new reality or her business would perish.
“I had to try to figure out something to do,” Joseph said. “To sustain myself and to still promote my business and promote other businesses, too.”
The answer, Joseph found, was online. She created a website and altered her business model. Rather than relying on in-person sales, she kept her truck in the driveway and from her computer started selling homemade pizza kits, which she’d deliver.
That online option got Joseph through the worst of the pandemic and, eventually, she started to gradually bring her truck back out. There have been ebbs and flows — notably, business took a hit when restaurants on Greenwich Avenue reopened — but her flexibility and the “overwhelming support” she said she’s received have enabled her continued operation.
Joseph shared her story as one of eight panelists on the webinar, which was meant to highlight local business ahead of Small Business Saturday. The Greenwich call was one of three hosted by Bysiewicz on Tuesday. The others focused on business in Bristol and New Canaan.
Joseph was joined by state Reps. Harry Arora, Livvy Floren and Stephen Meskers, as well as state Rep.-elect Kimberly Fiorello, who will replace Floren in the 151st District come January. First Selectman Fred Camillo and Women’s Business Development Council President and CEO
Fran Pastore were also on the call.
“Half of all Americans either own, or work for, a small business,” Bysiewicz began the webinar. “And two-thirds of the new jobs in this country are created by small businesses and our small businesses are hanging by a thread.”
Bysiewicz referenced a federal survey, in which 62 percent of small business owners responded that if they don’t see an increase in consumer spending by the end of the year, they are likely to go out of business
“That would be catastrophic for our downtowns and our beautiful cities and towns,” Bysiewicz said.
One effort to boost local business, especially those owned by women, is being led by Pastore.
For nearly 25 years, Pastore has led the Stamfordbased development council, a non-profit to help women launch and scale small businesses. During the pandemic, Pastore’s group launched an online marketplace that functions as a sort of directory for women-owned businesses, many of which she said were missed by federal pandemic relief efforts.
“The PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) really did not reach the people it was intended to reach for a variety of reasons,” Pastore said. “We know that 78 percent of the funds that came into Connecticut went to businesses, the majority of them owned by white men. Less than five percent were black-owned businesses and less than three percent were Hispanicowned businesses.”
Pastore said any business owner could register for the online marketplace ( Joseph, of Dough Girls, has), so long as they have an online presence and can commit to delivering online orders.
“Small business owners employ not only the people that work in their mall business,” Pastore said. “They hire painters, they buy furniture, they have to by PPE (Personal protective equipment). They care about shopping local. For them, one of the reasons to be so committed is they are small businesses and they want to buy from other small businesses.”
Small Business Saturday has been observed in the United States on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving since 2010. Unlike Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday is aimed at stimulating small brick and mortar businesses.
“Most of our jobs are created by small businesses, Greenwich is no different,” Camillo said on the call. “It’s really, really important, especially in the age of Amazon ... There’s something about going in person and meeting the merchant, or the restaurant owner ... There’s something about hands-on experience with people and getting that extra touch and knowing the merchants.”
The webinar came as coronavirus cases continue to trend upward in Connecticut, and on the heels of Gov. Ned Lamont’s plan to scale back the state’s reopening plan. Earlier this month, Lamont pulled the state back from Phase 3 to 2, further restricting restaurants and social gatherings.
Ahead of the holiday season, which could provide a bump to many establishments, Bysiewicz and the rest of the panelists urged shoppers to think of local businesses.
“It’s important to keep reminding people that without small businesses we’d all be in a lot of trouble, both on the local and state level,” Camillo said.