NYC businesses in Christmas 2020 can wear an empty look

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

In December, strolling through the Midtown Manhattan is normally like navigating through a hectic maze. In 2020, you can move hassle-free!

For several New York’s small businesses, that slump in customer traffic is really worrying. During the city’s busy seasons, businesses normally count on big jumps in revenue. Currently, they are experiencing a 66% decline in tourism, restrictions on shopping and dining, and a major rise in virus infection cases.

However, at Bryant Park’s annual outdoor holiday market, there’s still a steady stream of shoppers. At his market stall, Ron Menin is distributing samples of hot sauces with flavors like blueberry maple, ginger pear, and cinnamon ghost pepper. Menin has his own Hell’s Kitchen Hot Sauce and he gets 80% of annual revenue from his business during this holiday season.

Business at his year-round Columbus Circle store is much lower on an average due to limited foot traffic from travelers and commuters, so he says his Bryant Park stall is his best chance of breaking even this year.”Otherwise there is no holiday season or revenue,” Menin says.

This year, visitors to Bryant Park are at about a third compared to last year — however, Menin is keeping no stone unturned to use that to his favour.

“When you have less guests, but they’re more quality, you have more time to spend with people to maybe get your quote unquote, check average up.”

Also, Menin has doubled online marketing and promotions. The research firm CBRE predicts that this holiday season online shopping will increase from 14% to 40% of total retail sales.

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