Published: 4/9/2021 2:56:31 PM
NORTHAMPTON Longtime downtown business owner Bill Muller thought he had a plan consolidate his Northampton businesses, Guild Art Supply and Pierce’s Frameshop, and his Easthampton printing business, Big Wheel Press, into one space in the old Serio’s Market storefront on State Street in Northampton.
The spot was ideal, complete with parking. “We were working on floor plans and everything,” he said. “Then COVID hit.”
Surrounded by so much economic uncertainty, Muller scrapped those plans entirely. Instead of staying in downtown Northampton, where he’s run Guild Art Supply for 37 years, he made the tough decision last year to move the store and framing shop to his press space in Easthampton.
Published: 3/12/2021 5:08:33 PM
NORTHAMPTON Andrew Brow refers to the period between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day as the “dark days” of the restaurant season a time when people spend less money eating out.
But that was before the pandemic hit, casting a heavy cloud over his business that’s stretched on for an entire year, says the chef and owner of HighBrow Wood Fired Kitchen + Bar in Northampton.
“We’re getting by,” Brow said. “The doors will not lock.” But the business isn’t “printing money, either.”
Out in Florence, Miss Florence Diner owner Georgie Brunton said business is down quite a bit because of the pandemic, but that the restaurant is “hanging in there,” and holding out hope that as more people get vaccinated the business can get back to 2019 numbers.
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4 people, 1 takeout meal every week, for 3 months: ‘413 pledge’ seeks to ease impact of COVID on Northampton restaurants
Updated Feb 16, 2021;
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Groups of four people ordering one takeout meal every week for three months: That’s the goal of Northampton’s newly introduced “413 Takeout pledge,” a campaign that organizers say aims to ease the “difficult plight” of those in the service industry amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The restaurant-focused campaign is being led by the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee along with the Downtown Northampton Association. The idea for the program stemmed from a survey the EDC conducted last year that found people felt a healthy restaurant community is needed for the rejuvenation of the Pioneer Valley city during the COVID-19 public health crisis.