WDI: Survey reveals downtown Wilmington has lost 50-percent of jobs, revenue down

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The closure of businesses and restaurants resorting to a new business plan are feeling the financial pinch of COVID-19.

The depth of that impact in Downtown Wilmington has come into more focus because of a survey conducted and published by Wilmington Downtown Incorporated (WDI).

According to a news release, WDI collected data from small business owners from April 17-20.

The survey showed that downtown has lost more than 50% of its jobs and revenues are down 70% for about half of the businesses in the center city.

WDI said the anonymous survey was deliberately short with only six questions that focused on employment numbers and sales/revenue.

The survey was emailed to about 475 mostly small business owners within the district.  A total of 95 business owners or managers responded.

In terms of employment, small business owners reduced the number of full time employees by 55.7% using February 1 as the first data point and April 1 as the second collection point.  They further reported a 71% decline of part time employees on these two dates.

In terms of sales and revenues, the survey asked respondents to compare sales from the month of March 2019 to March 2020. More than 91% of the business owners suffered decreases of more than 50% based on this one month comparison.  Over 28% of the business owners reported that sales and revenues had fallen by 90% or more.

“While numbers are available on the state and national levels, this data gives more insight and clarity about economic impacts on Downtown Wilmington,” said WDI Chair Dane Scalise. He added that, “our local businesses need the community’s support now more than ever.”

WDI noted that the survey is a snapshot of a point in time.  The survey also focused on small business owners, mostly restaurants, bars, galleries, inns and attractions.  Other economic sectors, such as manufacturing or warehousing, were not involved in the survey as there are few of these businesses in Downtown.

To gain immediate data, WDI conducted the survey once businesses could document sales for March.  As the Governor’s Executive Order to ban sit-down service at restaurants and bars started on March 17^th, these businesses were able to generate economic activity for part of the month.  Some then shifted to take-out and curbside sales.  As almost all retail shops in Downtown closed when “stay at home” orders took effect at the end of March, WDI expects the employment and sales numbers will dip lower in April.                             

“WDI just launched the Re-3 Grant program to help small businesses re-stock, re-open and re-cover and these numbers validate the need for this effort,” said WDI President Ed Wolverton.  “WDI is continuing to raise money and hopes to make even more grants to help get merchants through this hard time with the help of the community,” he said.