Great Ideas to Help Local Business Owners to Come Back Strong Emerge from BPJCC Meeting

By Yehudit Garmaise  

  Among the many positive ideas that emerged from the lively brainstorming session of 30 business owners who met at the Boro Park Jewish Community Council (BPJCC) on Nov. 23, to persuade Boro Park residents to get their shopping needs met in the neighborhood stores, was a request that the city consider temporarily suspending its 4.5% sales tax in the coming weeks and months, which usually account for a huge fraction of the incomes of retailers, who are now bracing for the worst.

  On Friday, one day before the city’s Small Business Services (SBS) held its Small Business Saturday, Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams appeared to be on board with the idea “to give sales tax a holiday,” when he proposed that the city do so until the beginning of January, although the idea might not catch on for a while, said Avi Greenstein, the BPJCC's chief executive officer.

      To make up for the shortfall of the city’s income from a temporary loss of sales tax, Adams has said that in the first quarter of 2020, New York City made $840 million more than expected, which resulted in a savings that could now cover the shortfall of the temporary elimination of sales tax.  

   “If the city stops charging sales tax for a while, it will result in a net gain for the city because then, hopefully, stores can make more sales, keep more people on staff, and hire more people,” Greenstein said. “We have to apply some creative solutions in our economy right now because otherwise, more business owners will have to close their doors, and, G-d forbid, might have to be dependent on the city for financial assistance. Temporarily eliminating sales would, instead, be one way to help businesses to sustain themselves.”

      “We have an opportunity to revitalize our economy, but we must incentivize face-to-face shopper interactions, not face-to-computer interactions,” said Adams, who visited some small business on Nov. 27 in Brooklyn to show support that New Yorkers “shop locally” and in person.

   Although Adams and of course business owners want to encourage New Yorkers to shop locally, and not online, the COVID-19 pandemic might make online shopping a hard habit to break.

   Another great idea Boro Park business owners discussed at the November BPJCC meeting was the need for local businesses to secure professionals with technical savvy to create attractive, functional, and easy-to-use websites.

  The many out-of-town American Jews who stop in Boro Park to shop during every trip they take to New York would take advantage, year-round, of the great shopping area has to offer if it were easily accessible online. 

   As all professionals need continuing education on how to stay up-to-date and at the top of their fields, the Boro Park business owners also discussed, at the BPJCC meeting, a desire for regular business seminars that could teach participants classes on how to better their customer service, how to improve their return policies, and how to just think “big,” recalled Greenstein, who added that he has already secured funding so that the BPJCC can provide ongoing series of free classes, taught by professionals, for local Boro Park store owners. 

   Boro Park businesses owners also want to reveal the great power they have in their numbers by creating a professional association of Boro Park stores that will protect, serve, and represent business owners in the area.

   “Continuing our work on the Shop Local initiative, providing a place where business owners can go if they feel targeted by the city’s Department of Buildings or other agencies, and just creating a place to provide useful information and guidance would all be the objectives of a professional business association of Boro Park,” explained Greenstein, who reiterated how critical it is now that Boro Park business owners stick together.

   “We must create a strong initiative to create awareness among our Boro Park community members to support our stores and help them and the entire city to come back strong after as we enter, what we hope are the final months of the pandemic,” Greenstein said.