City of New Haven
The new Together New Haven Marketplace website.
Shop online, if you can. Shop in-person, if you must.
But no matter what, city officials implored, during this Covid-heavy holiday season, please shop local.
Mayor Justin Elicker, top city economic development officials, and representatives from a variety of neighborhood business districts issued that plea Wednesday afternoon during a virtual press conference held online via Zoom and YouTube Live.
The main purpose of the presser was to promote new incentive programs designed to make it easier and more appealing to patronize New Haven small businesses between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The “buy local” push comes as Covid cases and hospitalizations spike around the city, region, and country, and as businesses have suffered lower foot traffic, fewer customers, and no direct federal relief in months.
Zoom
“It’s been a very, very difficult time for businesses,” Elicker said during Wednesday’s presser. “It’s just been brutal, in particular for the service sector, the restaurant industry, and the hotel industry. There are no easy answers at this time.”
The buy local programs announced Wednesday represented a few stabs at trying to keep local shoppers’ dollars in New Haven even as the pandemic keeps people largely at home during what is typically the busiest shopping season of the year.
Elicker and city Economic Development Administration Deputies Steve Fontana and Cathy Graves (pictured) touted the new Together New Haven Marketplace website, an online retail directory of New Haven small businesses that have digital presences. The site is an updated version of the Together New Haven campaign first launched by the city towards the beginning of the pandemic this spring.
Bruno Baggetta of Market New Haven described a Holiday Passport program that enters local shoppers into a raffle to win a local business gift card package. David DelVecchio of the Shops at Yale boosted in-person shopping perks like free two-hour parking, free hot cocoa, and free cupcakes for people who spend above a certain amount at their stores. And Francesca Vignola of the Town Green Special Services District announced a new Socially-Distanced Santa Photos event to be held in the Shubert Theatre’s outdoor plaza every weekend between now and Dec. 20 with the hope of increasing foot traffic downtown during the holidays.
Wednesday’s virtual presser.
All of these business-boosting programs come at the same time that city and state government have gone to new lengths to try to encourage Covid-safety compliance and punish violations as cases rise.
Last week, Mayor Elicker called for the governor to allow the city to roll back to a stricter level of economic shutdown that would allow for shutting down services like indoor dining, gyms, and barber shops and hair salons in an effort to stem community transmission. The city also recently announced new $100 and $500 fines for businesses where employees are caught not wearing masks or that host larger-than-allowed gatherings. And just this week, Gov. Ned Lamont increased to $10,000 the maximum allowable Covid-related fine that municipalities can levy on businesses that violate state-mandated public health precautions.
Wednesday’s local business boosters and city officials made a pitch that New Haveners can shop local and stay safe from Covid at the same time holiday season.
Keeping shopping dollars local, they argued, will provide an invaluable boon for city small businesses struggling to weather this public health and economic storm.
Town Green Special Services District Executive Director Win Davis (pictured)said that, unlike with large national retailers like Amazon, 52 percent of all revenue brought in by local businesses goes back into the local economy.
“And retailers are willing to do whatever,” said Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Director Garrett Sheehan. Customers can arrange for curbside pickup or time-specific shop visits. Local businesses can be flexible and accessible in a way that national chains cannot.
“I think we’re all going to spend a ton of money in the next six weeks on presents, on all sorts of things,” said Westville Village Renaissance Alliance Director Lizzy Donius (pictured).
“If people make a conscious decision to spend that money locally,” including through such local shopping sites as this one, then the local businesses that give economic life to so many areas of the city have a better chance of surviving.
Fontana noted that New Haven has had more small businesses open than close this year, even during the pandemic. “The underlying fundamentals of New Haven’s economy are strong,” he said.
If people do shop in-person, he said, make sure to wear a mask and maintain six-foot social distances to reduce the likelihood of spreading Covid.