A SALE-MARY BID TO SAVE CITY RETAILERS
Program lets them use streets & sidewalks
With the most crucial part of the year for retailers looming on the horizon, New York City is launching a program that will allow struggling businesses to sell merchandise on city sidewalks outside their stores.
The Open Storefronts initiative is intended to see local shops through the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping season, when many retail businesses bring in the lion’s share of their profits.
“Here’s an opportunity that’ll reach over 40,000 small businesses in the city and will allow them to sell their wares outdoors right in front of their businesses,” Mayor de Blasio said at his Wednesday press briefing. “Store owners can go online right now and start applying.”
The program will begin Friday and extend through Dec. 31.
Since March, COVID-19 has decimated businesses throughout the city. With quarantine orders in place and anxieties continuing to run high, consumers have flocked to online retailers.
Rosanna Medina, who sells women’s undergarments out of storefronts in Washington Heights and the Bronx, was forced to shutter her stores during the pandemic and convert to online-only sales, a move she described as “very difficult.”
She reopened in June, but quickly found it challenging to accommodate enough customers to keep her stores afloat.
“The storefront program will be a huge, huge help for us,” she said Wednesday, appearing beside the mayor.
De Blasio’s new plan appears to take challenges like Medina’s into account, though it’s still unclear if it will be enough to save businesses that have already suffered significant revenue losses. Open Storefronts is modeled on two other city programs, Open Restaurants and Open Streets, which were designed to help restaurants operate prior to a state order that allowed them to reopen at 25% seating capacity. Those programs allow businesses to use streets and sidewalks to serve customers and have since been made permanent.
Under the Open Storefronts program, businesses will be allowed to use sidewalks and will have to maintain 8 feet of sidewalk space to allow pedestrians to pass. If businesses that take part are located near a street that’s been closed by the city, they’ll also be permitted to sell their wares there.
Jonnel Doris, de Blasio’s commissioner for Small Business Services, said that retailers will also be permitted to use umbrellas and tents to protect their merchandise.
“It’s so important to have a lot more business ahead of the holidays,” de Blasio said. “Everyone knows this is such a crucial time of the year for every small business. We want them to be able to maximize it.”