With the coronavirus pandemic still proving to be a major factor for many local businesses, there are a few ways you can help out. The loss of revenue threatens to close many of these businesses if they do not receive the proper support. Below are four types of local businesses you can support right now and how you can help them out.
Restaurants, bars, and music venues
Perhaps one of the hardest hit sectors of the coronavirus is the service industry. A number of local restaurants have already had to shut down completely because of the pandemic, while many others have stayed closed for months or been forced to operate at limited capacity. Bars and music venues are in a similar situation because of their tendency to operate at larger capacities. Purchasing a t-shirt, gift card or ordering take out are all good ways of helping these hard hit businesses. If you want to go the extra mile to support your favorite restaurants, bars, and music venues you can even give them a donation. They will be sure to appreciate it and it can end up making all the difference for their business.
Black owned businesses
The second type of local business that you may choose to support are those that are black owned. This is to show solidarity for all of the upheaval happening across the world in recent weeks. Many of these businesses were inadvertently looted in the various protests. Simply do some searching on Google for Black owned businesses in your city and you’ll certainly find many results. Purchase items from them and also show your support through kind words of encouragement.
Mom and Pop shops
Do you need your suit tailored? How about getting the best cut of meat from the local butcher? Or finding the perfect custom framing for your family photos? Well, many of these kinds of local businesses are mom and pop shops. They’ve long been competing with the larger corporations of the world, but now the situation is even more dire. If you need something that can be bought in a smaller mom and pop shop that you’d like to see stay around, consider purchasing those items from them. Next time you need to purchase something, do some research and shop small businesses before turning to a large corporation.
Movie theaters, museums, and galleries
The arts are suffering from the coronavirus. This is because movie theaters are operating at limited capacity if at all and the industry already has been changing with the growth of video streaming on demand. Then there are museums and galleries which both thrive with people donating money while accessing their spaces. A few ways to help these businesses is to make donations, attend these spaces if you are comfortable in doing so, and buy gift cards or items from the gift shop.
These businesses all need your help in these difficult times and would definitely appreciate it. Hopefully enough people can contribute to keep them afloat during these turbulent times. Do what you can right now to help those in your community.
