By Dylan Harrison
As we all know the lockdown restrictions have disproportionately impacted small businesses such as restaurants and “mom-and-pop” shops. Many small businesses have been forced out of business because they did not have enough money to support themselves and their employees for almost a year with very minimal income.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy pointed out that small business owners have been very adaptive during the pandemic. By doing things like building outdoor seating on their own dime, and creating contactless delivery and curbside pickup options for customers. Still these adaptations have not been able to sustain most of these businesses because the income is not near what it used to be.
His solution to this problem was creating the Barstool Fund, a way for small business owners to get financial relief from the issues directly caused by the pandemic. The only prerequisites to qualify for the fund are that you operated a successful business before the pandemic and that you have been paying your employees throughout the pandemic.
Small businesses in need can submit their stories to Barstool through their website in hopes of getting support from the fund. At the time of this writing 132 businesses have been supported by the Barstool Fund. The fund also has some big voices behind it like Aaron Rodgers and Gary Vaynerchuk who are dedicated to helping small businesses through this tough time. Portnoy has helped raise nearly 26 million dollars as well as raise awareness for the issue.
Last summer, Portnoy was embroiled in controversy when videos surfaced of him making racist comments directed at former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick. After intially pushing back against some calling on him to resign, he issued an apology:
“I can be better and I’m going to be better for those guys,” Portnoy said.
In New York City, restaurants have been particularly impacted by lockdown policies. At the time of this writing, indoor dining is completely banned in New York City. Many make the case that there are outdoor dining options for those who want to eat at restaurants, but the sub-35 degree temperatures do not make for a good outdoor dining experience and therefore does not attract many customers
Portnoy suggests opting for an indoor dining capacity limit such as the 25% one that was introduced during the summer. Restaurants while not essential businesses New York City’s restaurant industry had 23,650 establishments in 2019, provided 317,800 jobs, paid $10.7 billion in total wages citywide, and made nearly $27 billion in taxable sales. (According to the NYSC).
The jobs that the New York City restaurant industry make up are essential to families’ livelihoods, Portnoy argues. As the founder of a small business himself Portnoy felt incredibly close to this issue and decided that he wanted to help however he could.
What can you do to help the issue? The first thing you can do is to support small businesses. Go get bagels from the local deli or get takeout from your favorite local restaurant. You can also use social media to show support for your local businesses and help them to get more customers. If you would like to donate to the Barstool Fund you can here. The most important way that we can all help is to wear a mask and social distance.
