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Mayor de Blasio Urges New Yorkers to Shop Locally on Amazon Prime Day

Mayor de Blasio Urges New Yorkers to Shop Locally on Amazon Prime Day

by Yehudit Garmaise

     Today is Amazon Prime Day, which is a large-scale, 48-hour sale that the retail giant, which greatly benefitted from many consumers’ preference to shop online throughout the pandemic, however, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to choose to “shop locally.”

    “It is the perfect day NOT to shop on Amazon, and to keep it local, said Mayor de Blasio this morning. “It is a perfect day to shop your city. We want to see small businesses thriving."

    “Amazon tried to outgun every small business, everywhere."

     Mayor de Blasio, who often supports small business owners in his press conferences, paid tribute to “small family businesses that have been around forever and are the lifeblood of New York City.”

    Shopping locally not only supports your friends, family, and community members who own small businesses, but choosing not to shop online at Amazon also benefits Amazons’ workers, who the mayor said, were stopped by Amazon from unionizing.

     "While Amazon has gotten richer and richer, their workers have not," said the mayor, who noted that Amazon is Staten Island's largest private employer.  "That is not fair. That is not respecting the democratic rights of those workers. 

    “Amazon literally made record profits last year, but they do not seem to want to share those earnings with working people,” the mayor said. "A real prime shopper keeps it local: keeps the money in our neighborhoods, helps working people directly, doesn't put the money in the pockets of Amazon."

     Besides for asking New Yorkers to shop locally today to support local businesses, Mayor de Blasio dedicated $11 million and 100 workers to the city’s Department of Small Businesses (SBS) “to better assist small businesses and to help to make things happen."

     To do so, he is launching a new program: NYC Business QuickStart, through which by calling 1- (800) SBS-4NYC at the city’s Department of Small Businesses Services (SBS), small business owners can reach a “concierge,” who will, within 48 hours, get back to New Yorkers with solutions and support for their problems. 

     “One (SBS) person will guide business owners through the process of opening and running businesses,” said the mayor, who wants to provide businesses with "a helping hand." “New Yorkers who call, will get someone on the line who will cut the red tape and get the doors of your businesses open. Within 48 hours, we are guaranteeing business owners that we can get them answers or provide them with pathways that can help them do what they need to do.

     "I cannot stand the idea of New Yorkers waiting, when they are trying to come back and do the right thing."

     “We want to make New York the easiest place in America to open a business. We want to help New Yorkers to better get support and help them to move forward.”

Photo by: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office


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