Bklyn’s small businesses feel Omicron crunch
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COURIER LIFE, DEC. 31, 2021-JAN. 6, 2022 3
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The Omicron variant
caused signifi cant disruption
to the borough’s small
business community during
what’s traditionally the busiest
and most lucrative time of
the year, a new study from the
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
found.
Fifty-nine percent of Brooklyn
businesses surveyed by
the Chamber reported employees
calling out sick in the
last three weeks, while 77 percent
saw a reduction in sales
compared to the 2020 holiday
season, when the city’s vaccination
effort was beginning
to ramp up and transmission
was not nearly as high as now.
Over half of businesses saw
the owner or a member of the
staff test positive in the past
two weeks — and 61 percent
of those surveyed say holiday
revenue is down, according to
the biz-boosting organization.
The Chamber surveyed over
100 businesses on the state of
commerce as the highly-transmissible
Omicron variant has
taken hold of the city, bringing
with it daily records of new
positive cases, a signifi cant increase
in hospitalizations, and
a crush of people waiting on
line at virtually every testing
site. The survey was administered
from Dec. 23-28.
“Omicron has taken all of
us by surprise, and the toll on
small businesses during this
holiday season has been staggering,”
said Chamber President
Randy Peers in a statement.
“Just when many of our
small businesses were hoping
to make up some ground for
losses incurred throughout
the pandemic, they now face
another uncertain winter as
we head into 2022.”
Forty-six percent of surveyed
businesses reduced the
footprint of indoor activities,
while 20 percent had to temporarily
close during the holiday
season, the Chamber says.
Amy Glosser, who owns
BYKlyn, an indoor fi tness studio
in Boerum Hill, said that
30 percent of her membership
have cancelled their subscription
since Dec. 10.
“It’s had a very negative impact,”
Glosser told Brooklyn
Paper. “We have fewer people
in our classes, and many people
asking to either cancel or
pause their memberships.”
Omicron has been especially
painful for BYKlyn,
which during the pandemic
had pivoted its business model
to be primarily outdoors;
Glosser said that classes had
just been moved back inside
for the colder months when
the new variant hit.
“We just moved back inside,
and this happened,” she
said. “We were counting on being
inside for a few months.”
Classes are still indoors
for now, with fewer bikes and
more space between them, ventilation,
and masks required.
Keishon Warren, who owns
Bklyn Blend, a juice bar with
locations in Bedford-Stuyvesant
and East New York, said
that his holiday season profi ts
are down 10 percent over last
year. Several employees have
missed work in the past few
weeks after testing positive.
“Because of the employees
calling out, obviously we had
to fi gure out a different strategy
to continue and keep the
doors open,” Warren said.
Like 31 percent of business
owners surveyed, Warren and
his employees have borne the
backlash of customers angry
with being made to comply
with the local mask and vaccination
mandates. The city
implemented two new vaccine
mandates on private businesses
on Dec. 27: one required
all employees to provide proof
of at least one dose of the vaccine
by the 27th, while the
other expands the “Key to
NYC” vaccine passport for indoor
dining, fi tness, and entertainment,
requiring full vaccination
for those over 12 and
at least one dose for those 5-11.
Earlier this month, the state
reinstituted a mask mandate.
More than 125 neighborhoods
across the Five Boroughs
had a seven-day COVID-19
positivity rate of 10 percent or
higher from Dec. 14-20, according
to the latest city Health Department
data.
Despite COVID’s having returned
with a vengeance, business
owners do not seem concerned
that another lockdown
is on the way, though that may
also have something to do with
fatigue over the potential for a
shutdown of commerce
“I’m worried, but not too
worried because we shifted a
lot of our business to deliveries
and pickups,” Warren said.
“I think that has trained myself,
and a lot of my colleagues,
to expect the worst and be able
to navigate the storm.”
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Randy Peers consults
with a local small business owner. Courtesy of Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
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