'Save Our Stores': Upper East Siders Start Campaign To Shop Local

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — In early November, Julie Blinbaum Marcovici was driving up Third Avenue and felt a wave of dismay as she saw one empty storefront after another.

"It was absolutely devastating to see what our neighborhood looks like these days," she said, noting that the pandemic has worsened an already severe trend of retail vacancies across the Upper East Side.

The more she considered it, Marcovici realized two things: first, that she and her neighbors bore some responsibility for the spate of closures by doing their shopping on Amazon, rather than supporting local businesses. Second, that those small retailers lacked a way to communicate that they were open and needed help.

"I remember when [the Turkish restaurant] Beyoglu closed and everyone was like, 'What? We would’ve ordered every meal from there if we’d known that they were threatened,'" she said. "We would’ve just given them money and kept it open."

"Someone’s got to do something about this," she recalled thinking.

After building a website herself, Marcovici launched the "Save Our Stores" campaign just over a week later with an announcement on the popular UES Mommas Facebook page.

Related: Vacancy Crisis: Empty Storefronts Blanket Upper East Side

The campaign aims to spread the word about businesses worth supporting during the holidays through a directory on its website, as well as ongoing posts on Instagram. (Marcovici enlisted two high school juniors at the Ramaz School, which her daughter attends, to lead social media outreach.)

Within weeks, Save Our Stores had attracted about 40 neighborhood ambassadors who volunteered to promote the campaign.

Acknowledging that many are reluctant to shop indoors as COVID-19 rates rise in New York, Marcovici said the campaign is also emphasizing the number of precautions local businesses are taking to keep customers safe. As an example, she cited Little Eric Shoes on Madison, which sets up a carpet and chairs outside their shop to allow children to try on shoes outdoors.

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The only thing more heartening than her neighbors' support has been the reception by local business owners, Marcovici said. The owner of S. Feldman Housewares on Madison Avenue, she said, "started pinging me when sales came in as a result of our website and Instagram feed."

"To see members of the community standing with them and knowing that they’re not alone in this time of struggling to survive the pandemic has been truly gratifying to me," she said.

Marcovici, who has a full-time job and two kids, said that leading the campaign has been tiring. But she has little doubt that it will last past the holiday season and into next year.

"I think as long as the pandemic continues, we’ll have to continue this work," she said.

Read more about the campaign and find local businesses to support at shopues.com.