BUFFALO, N.Y. — For Buffalo's venerable Broadway market, Good Friday is Black Friday. The days leading up to Easter are the make it or break it days for merchants.
Mobs of shoppers, standing shoulder to shoulder are commonplace during the final days of lent. It is literally their bread and butter(lambs).
However, in the face of new restrictions on the size of crowds due to fears over the spread of coronavirus, and with the busy season fast approaching, some merchants are rightfully worried.
They have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars ordering stock and supplies which they would normally sell to throngs of shoppers, and which they now may not be able to.
Monday evening, the mayor's office released an update saying that while the Broadway Market’s year-round, full-time, permanent tenants will remain open to provide essential services, Easter-only vendors will not be open.
The Broadway Market’s Easter Ribbon Cutting, which was originally scheduled for March 26, is also canceled.
Equal Treatment Requested
The state has already taken extreme measures such as prohibiting sit down service at restaurants and bars, and the shuttering of theaters, and banning large gatherings in an effort to stop the virus' spread.
This also will be the case for restaurants inside the market. According to the mayor's office, The Broadway Market’s restaurants will only be open for take-out meals only. No congregant dining will be allowed anywhere inside.
However, as it appears that grocery stores are among the exemptions from the state's new rules regarding businesses, Broadway Market merchants hope they won't be singled out, and will indeed be considered the same.
"We are a food supplier just like any major grocery store," said Linda Lundt of Babcia's Pierogi. "The Broadway Market is a supermarket just like Tops or Wegmans. So unless they (the state) are planning on restricting those stores then they cannot shut the market down."
Uneasy Times
Lendt has already prepared 25,000 pierogies which she fully planned to peddle prior to Easter. In the event that they can't all be sold, they can remain frozen in hopes of selling them later.
"We do a lot of fundraising sales and wholesale, so we're trying to increase that business to make up for what may be missing during holy week," Lendt said.
However, that is not the same for other merchants like Dariah Parker, the owner of Lewandowski Produce.
"I'm not gonna lie and say we're not worried because we are," Parker told WGRZ-TV. "This is our big time of year. A lot of us depend on Easter to get us through the rest of the year."
Parker has already ordered thousands of dollars worth of fresh-cut flowers which she planned to sell before Easter. "My first delivery is coming this week," she said.
Unlike Lendt's goods, however, hers cannot be frozen and sold later. Nor can they be eaten, although, in a figurative sense, she may end up eating them, or at least the cost of them.
They Have Stuff, By The Way
Monday was typically empty through much of the market, which struggles to attract shoppers outside of the Easter season.
In that regard, it stood in stark contrast to the major grocery stores in Western New York and other parts of the country, where droves of shoppers have emptied shelves amid the coronavirus scare.
It should also be noted, however, that because of that, there was still a plentiful supply of meats, fresh vegetables, and canned goods, the likes of which have been plundered elsewhere.
As well there were no long lines of shoppers waiting hours to enter stores and pay at checkouts elsewhere.
The Fate of the Dyngus Day Parade
Buffalo recently joined other cities in its decision to cancel its St. Patrick's Day Parade.
At this time, there has been no announcement made regarding the popular Dyngus Day Parade, which brings thousands to the city's East Side, and to the Polonia District in particular, on the day after Easter (April 13).
Sources tell us that if the parade has to be postponed, parade organizers may try to reschedule it for May 3, which is Constitution Day in Poland, if the prohibition on large gatherings due to coronavirus is no longer in effect.