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Redefining Retail: Re-Opening Downtown for Business

We spoke on an IDA webinar in May titled, Re-Opening Downtown for Business, and received several questions during and after the event. We’ve created an FAQ document with answers that address a broad spectrum of concerns from downtown leaders. We hope you find this document useful.

WEBINAR Q&A
WEBINAR Recording

Sample questions include:

POST WEBINAR Q&A

What about the fact that this is more of a female oriented pandemic. Hospitality workers that are laid off tend to be more female and front line workers in hospitals tend to be more female. And then childcare and now teaching from home type issues? Previous recessions were more male based, so how is the impact and recovery different if it is more female oriented?

To date, women make up more than 60 percent of workers who have lost jobs because of the coronavirus, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Women add a tremendous amount to the workplace, to the creative aspect of retail development and
merchandising, and to our overall economy. It’s unknown how this disparity will affect recovery efforts, but we recommend focusing on closing the wage gap within your own small businesses, supporting women in the workplace, and being mindful of childcare barriers that all families are facing. -JG

Any best practices for DDA Directors to support retailers and small business access to funding grants and business expertise through the hard times ?

Our top recommendation would be to become a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers. While that may seen counter-intuitive to downtown revitalization efforts, ICSC’s membership for public sector employees is $100 per year and includes access to training, webinars, white papers, and up to the second information about federal funding and national retail development. These trends and strategies can easily be translated to a more local level. -JG

Do you know of services like Doordash that do non-food delivery? I’m thinking for our urban garden center, our clothing stores, our hardware stores. Are you seeing more of this need?

In many communities, locally owned delivery service companies are emerging that utilize relationships with local businesses to deliver all sorts of goods and services. The need for this service is growing, especially as the older or more immuno-compromised populations remain isolated or quarantined. -JG

REDEFINING RETAIL

Re-Opening Downtown

Post-webinar questions answered.

Post webinar Q&A

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