East Williamsburg keeps getting written up as one of Brooklyn’s hot corners, but the people who actually run its shops are not feeling it. In a new city survey, 44 percent of the neighborhood’s merchants said their sales fell over the past year.
The numbers come from a Commercial District Needs Assessment, part of the city’s AvenueNYC revitalization program run through the Department of Small Business Services, and reported by Greenpointers. The assessment pulled more than 900 responses, including 308 merchants.
Low foot traffic was the most common complaint. Thirty-one percent of merchants named it as one of their top concerns. A store that nobody passes is a store that nobody enters. Owners also flagged transportation, including frustration with the bike-lane configuration on Grand Street, along with the rising cost of marketing and advertising, public safety, and unstable leases.
Lease instability drives closures. A business can survive a slow year. It cannot survive a landlord who doubles the rent the month the block gets trendy. Falling sales and uncertain leases mean longtime shops close and get replaced.
The merchants asked for help running marketing campaigns to attract younger customers, the newcomers who have been moving into the neighborhood but not spending at the existing stores. They also asked for access to financing, storefront and space improvements, help with regulatory compliance, new equipment, and support holding onto their leases. The goal: reach the people who already live here, and afford to stay.
The survey is meant to steer the city’s AvenueNYC investment in the district. The findings are a to-do list with money attached. For anyone who lives in East Williamsburg, the stores said their problem is foot traffic. Foot traffic is neighbors choosing the corner shop over the app. Where you spend is the vote that lands fastest.
Featured image: Photo: Black Iris
