Small businesses in Downtown Salisbury to start support group as foot-traffic dips
SALISBURY, Md. – The Owners of Blackwater Apothecary and Two Scoops Ice Cream in Downtown Salisbury are announcing a small businesses support group, as they say the fall saw an over 50% drop in foot traffic. The business owners say that drop threatens their businesses.
The pair point to the closure of SBY Home downtown as a sign of just how dire the situation is. “We all rely on each other’s customers on each other’s businesses so to see a place close because they have no customers, no businesses is extremely depressing and sad,” said Two Scoops Owner Nicole Rogers.
Rogers tells 47 ABC WMDT that she is excited for the future of the downtown, when the Unity Square projects and future developments are approved. However, she is concerned many current businesses won’t survive without help to make it to those brighter days.
Rogers says the city needs to do more to market and promote downtown spaces. “Are they waiting for all of us to be gone? Because one by one, businesses are closing one after another,” she said.
The announcement comes on the heels of a survey put out by Blackwater Apothecary owner, Nicole Blackwater. The survey asked for public input on what was stopping residents from coming downtown, and saw more than 800 responses.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the response, and a lot of what we’re seeing is a perception issue, and not necessarily real-life things that are problems here. Specifically, most people have a lot of things to say about parking, safety and business hours and things that they want to do down here that just don’t exist,” Blackwater said.
Blackwater believes parking and safety are concerns that do not reflect the reality of the downtown. She says one concern they hope the support group can address, is a lack of businesses being open at the same time in the downtown area.
“We’d like to collectively do is work towards being open longer hours and similar hours, we also hope to do marketing together so that we’re able to get the word out there to more people better,” Blackwater said.
Small business owners say they often go at it alone; but they hope working together can help them work through issues and raise them when they need more support.
“I believe the city has done everything in its power to help us and support us, but there’s only so much that they can do. When I think of having a collective voice, I believe that the city will have to listen,” Blackwater said.
The City of Salisbury released the following statement to 47 ABC:
“We are appreciative of the efforts of the business owners to work together to help build a thriving downtown for the whole community and for the creation of a Downtown Business Support Group, and look forward to continuing an open dialogue with our new administration. We also look forward to any actionable information that comes out of the online survey the businesses are conducting.”
