NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — With so many businesses struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, the holiday shopping season can be a make or break time.
While even a global pandemic couldn’t stop shoppers from gorging on Black Friday deals this year, local shop owners are hoping there’s spending money left for them on Small Business Saturday, CBS2’s Christina Fan reported.
A projected 35% to 40% of holiday shopping sales will be online this year, partly because of the pandemic. More than 100,000 small businesses around the U.S. have been forced to close.
“Jeff Bezos doesn’t need more of our money. Our friends and neighbors who are local, independent shop owners and retailers, they need our money this season more than ever,” said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the Downtown Westfield Corporation in Westfield, NJ.
Westfield is pulling out all the stops, including opening a new welcome center that offers free gift wrapping and even arranges free deliveries from local retailers during the holidays.
Many small businesses do 70% to 80% of their annual sales in November and December.
Miriam Silver Verga who owns Mimi & Hill, an interior design studio and retail shop, said they’re counting on shoppers to spend a least part of their budget on buying local more than ever this year.
“Not all your shopping has to come from downtown. But, you can make a concerted effort that 20, 30, 40, 50 percent of the purchases you make can directly affect your town, your community, your neighbors, said Verga.
One in five owners say they will have to shut down if economic conditions don’t improve within six months.
Jacklyn Civins owns the Evalyn Dunn Gallery in Westfield. She points out one thing you won’t find in a small shop like hers is a crowd of people which, in a pandemic, is priceless.
“We do whatever you want. We will pick up. We will deliver. Whatever the needs are,” Civins said.
Many small businesses owners have also launched online shops to provide customers with an option to shop from home.
Some cities and towns have also invested quite a bit of money into holiday decorations in the hopes of attracting more shoppers to downtown areas.
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