BY JESSICA PARKS
Shop owners along Bay
Ridge’s Third Avenue are coming
together to promote their
commercial district that’s
struggled amid the pandemic
by launching events to help increase
foot traffi c.
“A lot of us have started to
come together to try to make
Third Avenue a more vibrant
shopping and dining district,”
said Danielle Febles-King,
owner of the Ridge Kids, a children’s
clothing and toy store.
The merchants have taken
to their social media pages to
dispatch information about
their fellow storefronts, providing
free advertising designed
to make the corridor a
more bustling place for commerce
after months of Brooklynites
huddling indoors and
largely shopping online.
“A great thing we have all
been doing easily, is we have all
been sharing everyone else’s social
media posts. We’ve all been
sharing it on our Instagram
stories,” said Louis Coluccio Jr.
of ALC, an Italian grocer near
86th Street. “Everyone. From
restaurants like Cebu, to shops
like Classic Impressions.”
In October, businesses
worked together to launch the
“3rd on 3rd” event, where nearly
20 mom-and-pop shops along
the avenue signed on to donate
a portion of the day’s proceeds
to breast cancer research —
raising more than $6,000 for
the American Cancer Society’s
Making Strides Against Breast
Cancer foundation.
“That was the fi rst event,
a lot of us were tagging each
other and trying to promote it
and make sure the customer
knew we were giving a percentage
COURIER L 6 IFE, JANUARY 22-28, 2021
back for cancer research,”
Febles-King said.
Realizing the need to lift
each other up, the merchants
organized a winter stroll in
December, where many business
owners put tables outside
their storefronts with various
activities like letters to Santa
or a book signing, which led
stores to see a 50-to-60 percent
increase in sales that day.
The entrepreneurs also said
they saw a steady fl ow of customers
over the holiday season,
which Coluccio partially credits
to their collective action, as
well as a general awareness
among Brooklynites of the virtues
of shopping locally.
“I defi nitely feel like customers
are appreciating more
and more what is going on,”
Coluccio said. “You can see
it in their tone on social media
and when they come in. I
think they realized we are all
in this together.”
The jump in sales provided
a much-needed lifeline to the
many of Third Avenue’s businesses,
and has led the merchants
to plan several more
Children write letters to Santa during an event hosted by Third Avenue
businesses. Danielle Febles-King
events in the coming months.
Currently, the group is working
on creating a small outdoor
market outside of a neighborhood
restaurant, Cebu, where
the avenue’s sellers, artists, designers,
and entertainers can
all showcase their wares.
“Third Avenue has all
these great things,” Coluccio
said. “So we are trying to
bring everybody out.”
On top of promotions and
events, the business owners
have also been pooling resources
and sharing their extras
to help others cut down
costs when many are struggling
fi nancially.
“We are trying to fi gure out
ways to not spend money on extra
stuff,” Coluccio said. “I’ll
give it to you and then she’ll
give me stuff, and it works out
great and feels nice, too.”
A grateful Coluccio described
the partnership between
the Third Avenue businesses as
a light of hope during the darkest
days of the pandemic.
“It makes the difference
between wanting to come to
work every day and not,” Coluccio
said. “Knowing your
neighbors have your back and
are in it together.”
HELPING HANDS
Third Avenue merchants band together to
promote commercial district amid pandemic
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