MANCHESTER, N.H. – U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai talked with Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, Representative Chris Pappas (D-NH-01) and several Manchester-area small business owners on Monday at Consuelo’s on Amherst as part of roundtable looking to gain information on how U.S. trade policy impacts business at the local level.
Much of the conversation between Tai, a cabinet official in the Biden Administration, and the others assembled at the gathering centered around Manchester’s ability to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the changes businesses across the country have faced in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Conseulo’s Co-Owner Martin Delgadillo said that since the pandemic there have been disruptions in the availability of employees, which has caused him to rely more on family to operate his restaurant. He also noted that the rise of remote working has caused an exodus of office workers from the downtown area. Although he believes that over all the city is still growing given the demand for housing and the likely transitioning of that office space into housing, his business has had to adapt due to the different demographics from that shift.
“Foot traffic is so important for many businesses downtown like mine. We’ve been suffering a bit because of less of that foot traffic, mainly during lunch rushes,” he said. “So we’ve shifted a bit and focused more on traffic from events at the Rex Theatre, Palace Theatre and SNHU Arena. We might also look into marketing on Tik Tok or doing more with delivery services.”
Delgadillo and other business owners were also grateful for assistance from the Manchester Economic Development Office (MEDO), a city department responsible for helping Manchester businesses. In particular, MEDO got praise from the business owners for assistance in applying for federal grants during and after the COVID-19 pandemic such as funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the U.S. HUD Community Development Block Grants. Tai also noted that in some ways, support from MEDO, Craig and Pappas provided local small businesses a substitute for the institutional knowledge and economies of scale that larger businesses have by default.
While Tai said that she has seen many comparable stories to Manchester’s in cities across the country, the ability of Manchester’s business community to adapt and persevere has unique qualities.
“I think that what I heard today was very, very special and I am tremendously inspired by the pluckiness of the individual business owners, the Mayor’s Office, Congressman Pappas and the folks here in the economic development office being able to see where the challenges are, create opportunities and think outside the box,” she said. “All of those things we need in the world.”