BY CYBELE POLICASTRO AND LIZ KEENAN

Shop Bleecker is back! The month-long shopping event is underway throughout November.

The event is organized by the Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce (GVCCC), and began as a way to bolster the area after a well-publicized vacancy epidemic affecting the area.

Forty-five businesses are participating in this year’s Shop Bleecker, providing deals and discounts. Customers can also enter a raffle for prizes.

Three years ago, Senator Brad Hoylman released his ‘Bleaker on Bleecker: A Snapshot of High-Rent Blight’ report and in the time since Bleecker has been rebounding however, like the rest of the world has been facing challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.

I recently had the chance to zoom with Maria Diaz of the Chamber to chat about how it’s going.

Shop Bleecker is a month-long event – will there be a “Shop Bleecker” day this year?

MD: Yes, November 21st, we're gathering businesses to stay open from the hours of six to seven. And we'll be promoting that as an after-hours event. We're encouraging people to make appointments to shop throughout the entire month, but that will be extra time for some of those stores to be able to, to stay open for shoppers.

Are people shopping?
MD:  Yes, most stores are saying that people are shopping.

So how has COVID-19 impacted Shop Bleecker this year? Did you think it was going to be possible to do it this year?

MD: Yes. So, The Chamber had been evaluating all of our programming since all of our big programming involves like in-person visits. We want it to stay as safe as possible and to abide by guidelines.

We wanted to see what sort of health precautions the stores were going to put in themselves so that if we were to partner with them, that we knew that customers were going to stay safe. And it seems like everybody has taking those safety precautions and they're communicating that to all their customers.

So, we felt that as long as we relate back, people need to continue to stay safe and abide by all the regulations that are being encouraged, that we can move forward with it.

Tell me a little bit more about what made you select Bleecker street originally?

MD: We decided on Bleecker because it was definitely much more affected with the vacancies and we wanted to change the whole idea that Bleecker was bleak.

Over the years, we've continued to expand it. And that's why there's stores that are not on Bleecker that are participating. We have The Doughnut Project on Morton Street and hair salon, Vidov West on Charles Street.

There is also a new jewelry store at 92 Perry Street.

They're participating too. So, we're trying to always work with stores that are adjacent to Bleecker Street.  Eventually, if the project continues, we might consider changing the name so that it's more reflective of the West Village.

What does the (GVCCC), do in general?

MD: The Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization and its mission is to help the businesses in our footprint. Our footprint is actually much bigger than our name suggests. We cover everything from Canal Street up to 34th Street. Over the past few years, we've been trying to create programming that is helpful for the businesses of the West Village and Chelsea creating programs like Shop Bleecker and the Chelsea Chew- a program we did for restaurants last year.

At the end of the day we want to see businesses survive and thrive providing networking and educational events.  This year, we put together a database of COVID-19 related resources, like financial resources, where people could apply to either get loans or grants.

We do a lot of networking for our businesses. If a business owner joins, they can get connected to other business owners that are in our roster instead of having to do like a cold call and having that commonality breaks the ice a little bit so that people can get to know each other.

So, our four tenets are to educate, to promote our neighborhoods, to provide networking and to provide advocacy. So that last piece basically means us talking to elected officials, getting information from our members to let people know that what the stories are behind our members. Letting them know if our members are getting affected negatively or positively by any policy.  We want our elected officials to know.

Would you say that Shop Bleecker has been helping the businesses on Bleecker?

MD: I'm going to say yes, because most of them continue to come back. That’s my indicator of it being successful if they continuously come back and want to be part of the program year after year.

I think that the loss of numbers and businesses (this year) isn't related to the program, I think it's related to COVID-19.

Do you think that once COVID-19 is under control, businesses will be able to prosper again?

MD: Yes. I think that the city is very resilient. I can't imagine New York City not being what New York City is. It’s the place that people come to realize their dreams.

I think that COVID-19 is going to make the businesses that are going to survive even stronger. And eventually we'll get to a point that we'll see more businesses coming back to the the city.

Shop Bleecker After Hours is this Saturday (November 21) from 6-7pm for more information go to the website and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.