The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Long Island businesses yesterday said the economy remains slow due to the absence of international visitors even though it has been released from the latest COVID-19 lockdown.

Jennifer Cartwright-Butler, owner/operator of Jen C Collection, told Tribune Business: “I’m not even in my shop because there are no tourists, so it doesn’t make any sense for me to open up. What happened is that after the lockdown I opened up, but nothing was happening.

“Then the hurricane [Isaias] came and I had to end up packing up everything because where my store is it has flooded there. Right now I have everything packed up and hopefully things can get better soon. I really depend on the tourists, but right now not very much is happening.”

Ms Cartwright-Butler added: “My upholstery business caters to the locals, but I guess everyone is holding on to their money and they don’t want to spend. What I did during the [first] lockdown was I started making masks. That was the only income I had and it went well. I made some masks for Nassau, but mostly it was for the locals on the island.”

She said all other Long Island retailers are experiencing the same business conditions, and added: “My brother and sister-in-law, they have a bar in Salt Pond and business is slow also. I guess things will pick back up when we have international flights coming back in because a lot of their business is from tourists, too.”

Kevin Burrows, KMB Construction’s general manager, said: “Well, right now if you were in construction and you had previous work before the virus, things are still going on. But other than that it’s slow right now with construction.”

Speaking to the lack of significant construction projects on Long Island, he added: “We don’t have a high or a low, but we have a steady pace. We don’t just depend on one thing. We sponge and fish, and then we do construction when it’s around, and whenever tourists come we cater to them also, but we don’t always have a boom like that. We have like a steady pace.

“Everybody is excited now that we could go about our daily lives without the fear of being locked down. I don’t do much of the tourism side, but I know it has to be slow because there are no flights coming in, only private charters and people who probably have second homes and stuff like that.”