This is a copy of an email I sent out earlier today to all the local business owners we have in our database, since that isn't everybody, and since emails are sometimes missed or misdelivered, I'm posting it to our home page to ensure all local business owners see it.
Dear Fellow Local Business Owner:
I know from personal discussions that many local business owners are concerned about the local impact of COVID-19. Even if nobody in our community – and we certainly hope this is the case – ever contracts this coronavirus, the effort underway to contain the spread of the disease is already being felt in Genesee County.
The state has said all events and gatherings of 500 people or more should be canceled, other events should have attendance reduced by 50 percent, and restaurants and bars should restrict customer access to 50 percent of capacity.
That last restriction, enforceable by police, fire, and health officials, is of great concern to our local business owners and their employees.
The restrictions are understandable. The main goal of these policies is to keep our health care system from becoming overwhelmed, as has already happened in places like Iran and Italy and happened early on in China. When health care systems become overwhelmed, more people die and the virus spreads faster.
At the same time, lives also depend on healthy economies. People need to work. Businesses need to remain successful.
We are looking for ways to help the local business community. We’re going to continue to ask our readers, of course, to support first and foremost our locally owned businesses.
For locally-owned restaurants, we want to hear from you if you’re offering curbside pickup or delivery. We want to compile a list and publish it at no charge for our readers. Please email details to howard@thebatavian.com. Include business name, hours of pickup or delivery, location, and a link to an only menu if available. We will publish the list at no charge.
But also, to help promote these services we’re going to offer a discount on sponsored posts to businesses promoting curbside pickup and delivery. We’re taking $20 off the price of a sponsored post, making it $100. And to help increase and overlap exposure, we’ll boost that post on Facebook at no additional cost. For example, if you want to spend $50 to boost the post to our 19K followers on FB, we will only charge that $50 fee we pay to Facebook (no mark up).
If you’re interested, email howard@thebatavian.com.
And let me know any ideas you have for how The Batavian can help the local business community during this time.
