WASHINGTON (7News) — With the longest government shutdown in US history in the rearview, economic impacts are still being felt across the country.
In the District, many local businesses have had to shut their doors for good.
The ones that are still open are trying to recover before it’s too late.
At the D.C. Holiday Market at Dupont Circle, which opened on Friday, customers can’t come quickly enough.
“I think there’s a lot of nervousness and trepidation with street vendors in general,” Brandy Rall, owner of the Narrow Passage Store, told 7News’ Lianna Golden.
Rall’s business has been selling antique prints and maps for more than 40 years in the D.C. metro area.
“We started at the flea market at Eastern Market. My father, Tom Rall, was the first vendor ever to sell under the awning on Sundays on Capitol Hill,” Rall explained.
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This year, and particularly over the past month, he said, sales have taken a major hit.
DC sometimes feels like around zero when there are things like shutdowns happening, particularly the purchasing power of a lot of our government agents and our government contractors, who we sort of rely on as an audience in the holiday season. They seem to be holding onto their wallets just a little bit tighter.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that the shutdown blocked $5 billion in funding to more than 10,000 small business owners nationwide, forcing some to cut hours, lay off employees, or close altogether.
“It’s a shame because some good restaurants over on 17th Street have shut down recently. Fox & Hounds, Trio Bistro, which have been open since 1967, so it’s just a bad time for the city in general,” shopper Ben Kron said.
Business partners Maria Corbitt and Clauda Alvarez own a jewelry shop. They, too, have been relying on the holiday season to put food on the table and keep local vendors up and running.
“We are in Eastern market every weekend, and our sales were cut at least in half,” Corbitt said. “We have put all of our energy and resources in this.”
“I’ve been preparing since July, if you can imagine. It’s thousands of pages of paper that I am chopping, cropping, matting, framing,” Rall said.
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The hard work and dedication serve as a true testament to what goes into bouncing back from the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
“This is our life. This is our livelihood. We depend on these next six weeks to really pay our bills,” Rall said.
You can find both booths at the holiday market on New Hampshire Avenue, NW, just north of Dupont Circle Park. It’s open every day, except for Thanksgiving Day and December 1.
During the week, the market opens at noon and closes at 8 p.m. On the weekends, the market opens one hour earlier at 11 a.m.