New York City runs on local businesses whose unique products fill the shelves of our markets and kitchen cabinets. But at the same time, it can be one of the most difficult places to stay afloat as a small business. <\/p>\n
As the owner and founder of Fairly Nuts<\/a>, I routinely have to navigate the challenges that come with growing and maintaining a business in a city with such a complex and constantly changing regulatory environment. A new bill now before the City Council would make this unenviable task even harder<\/a>. More importantly, it would put my small business\u2019s future at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fairly Nuts is a trail mix company that I created in 2023 to provide healthy snacks to customers with busy, on-the-go lifestyles. After a run or a track competition, I\u2019m always looking for something quick and nutritious to fuel me up. That\u2019s why I created Fairly Nuts, a product that can keep up with busy lifestyles \u2013 something that New Yorkers are no stranger to.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, we make trail mix combinations with healthy ingredients that customers crave and in convenient packaging. We are based on the Upper West Side, but we sell our products retail, wholesale, and on our website. We work with third-party delivery companies to reach our customers and to find new ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like many small businesses in the city, Fairly Nuts has seen the impacts of rising costs due to inflation and tariffs, but also the challenging regulatory environment in New York that has increased red tape and operating fees. That is why I am concerned about Intro. 518, a new bill that will add even more hurdles for businesses, like mine, that work with delivery companies to sell our products. <\/p>\n This bill threatens the ability of some \u201clast-mile facilities\u201d to operate unless they make significant operational changes \u2013 or shutter their operations entirely. For me and Fairly Nuts, this outcome could be devastating, cutting off a key distribution partner and source of income.\u00a0<\/p>\n We rely on last-mile delivery facilities to reach our customers, to share our product with local businesses and for essential marketing services. We don\u2019t have an in-person storefront, so we rely on delivery services as a steady form of income in addition to our first party sales. We know that there are other businesses in the city like ours that this proposed legislation threatens to harm and we want to shed light on our stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a proud entrepreneur in Manhattan, I encourage the City Council to take the time to re-evaluate this legislation, because though perhaps well-intentioned, it\u2019s going to cause real harm to small businesses like mine, who have come to rely on last-mile facilities to reach their customers and meet their bottom lines. These requirements could eliminate an essential revenue stream, and I know I\u2019m far from the only one who could suffer the consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n Excessive regulations like those currently being considered for last-mile delivery facilities risk serious damage to the small businesses that make New York City the best city in the world. I hope the City Council really thinks about these concerns and takes the threat to the business community seriously.<\/p>\n Julie Wolf is the owner and founder of Fairly Nuts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City runs on local businesses whose unique products fill the shelves of our markets and kitchen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12581,28176,3386,3468,75410,75411,592,75412,75413,9,24,56,63,65,64,54742,2990,70230,26967,75414],"class_list":{"0":"post-188161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-city-council-legislation","9":"tag-e-commerce","10":"tag-economic-impact","11":"tag-entrepreneurship","12":"tag-food-startup","13":"tag-intro-518","14":"tag-last-mile-delivery","15":"tag-local-business-challenges","16":"tag-manhattan-business","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-nyc-headlines","22":"tag-nyc-news","23":"tag-regulatory-environment","24":"tag-small-business","25":"tag-small-business-advocacy","26":"tag-supply-chain","27":"tag-trail-mix"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}