‘Ups and Downs’: The state of Collar City businesses in 2023 (Troy Record)
This story by Melissa Schuman was published in the Troy Record on December 24, 2023.
Left: The Record, Dec. 24, 2023, page A1. Right: continued on page A3. Click either page to enlarge.
By Melissa Schuman
mschuman@saratogian.com
TROY, N.Y. — As 2023 draws to a close, many are looking back and reflecting on how the year has gone from both a personal and professional perspective.
The Troy Record sat down with several people from the city’s business community to look at the state of Troy businesses this year.
Olivia Clemente, Executive Director of the Troy Downtown BID, felt 2023 was a year of ups and downs for city businesses.
“The winter months can be a little bit slow, and the summer months also had their ups and downs,” she remarked. “Our Saturday Farmers’ Market is continuing to bring in a lot of good foot traffic for our businesses.”
As BID Executive Director, Clemente worked to create fun monthly events that would draw more attention to the city and support the local businesses. She would love to see Troy turn into more of a destination city rather than an event-driven city, and hopes to see that starting to happen in 2024.
Clemente noted that one of the challenges facing Troy businesses this year was increased prices across the board.
“Everything’s expensive,” she commented. “When you say your groceries are expensive, think about the inventory that our restaurants and small businesses are buying. It’s hurt the community as a whole because everything is expensive — even rent is expensive.”
On a positive note, she is looking forward to seeing what the new city administration will bring,
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Captions
Olivia Clemente, Executive Director of the BID, enjoys a visit to Stacks Espresso Bar. (Melissa Schuman — MediaNews Group)
Steve Ridler, Market Manager of the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market, enjoys a beverage at Bard & Baker. (Melissa Schuman — MediaNews Group)
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as well as hoping to fill the city’s empty buildings and bringing in new businesses. Looking ahead to 2024, Clemente expects to push the marketing side of things, drawing attention to the city as a whole to begin focusing on Troy as a destination city.
“I want to continue seeing a sense of community,” she said. “I want to create events that make sense for them. I want to find out who is someone we can bring into Troy. We want to find these makers who want to invest in Troy and stay here. Going into 2024, we know how we’re doing our events, so now we need to focus on what’s the economic growth that we can bring to Troy. I think that really comes from investing, so it’s about finding people who are willing to invest in downtown.
“A goal for 2024 is a heavy push on marketing, getting Troy on the map, creating Downtown Troy and Troy as a whole as a destination.”
Clemente has also seen a lot of collaboration between businesses this year, with new creative events, products, and features. The BID is also moving towards being more inclusive of all businesses in Troy, including beyond the downtown area. The BID started holding monthly meetings of its Retail Committee, which helps businesses and the BID collaborate together.
Theresa Van Duyne, owner of T&J Handcrafted Soap, sits on the Retail Committee and is looking forward to helping Troy’s small businesses get the attention they need.
“It’s really going to help the business owners communicate with each other and with the BID,” Van Duyne said.
As a business owner herself, Van Duyne agreed that 2023 was a year of ups and downs.
“It’s been an okay year,” she commented recently. “We’re doing well right now, because it’s Hanukkah so people are in here shopping for gifts, and Christmas is soon which will bring more people in. But the weather had an effect on a lot of us this year. We had an unprecedented number of rainouts at the Farmers’ Market, and for the Victorian Stroll.
“But it hasn’t been bad — people are still coming out, because Troy is a great community. They embrace all of us here, and I love it. I love my community. You can’t say enough good things about Troy, it’s got such a big heart.”
Van Duyne was able to continue expanding her product line and supporting new local artists this year, and she looks forward to continuing to do so in 2024. She hopes to get some grant awards that will allow her to take the curriculum she wrote on “creating a craft business” for an online education community and offer it for free to the Troy community.
And as a former educator, she looks forward to opportunities to teach classes at both branches of the Troy Public Library.
“I’m looking forward to an evolution of my services — not just the products in my store, but what I can offer from an educational perspective as well,” she said.
Stephen Ridler, Market Manager for the Troy Waterfront Farmers’ Market, agreed that the weather this year did not do the Farmers’ Market or its many vendors any favors, but it fortunately didn’t stop people from coming out to “enjoy Troy.”
“From the Market’s perspective, we’ve bounced back every year since COVID. We’re trying to make it so the Market doesn’t compete with anybody and is complementary to what’s going on (with downtown Troy businesses),” he said. “I think we’ve seen our numbers come back up each year, in terms of customers, and I think we’ve seen the amount of spending go up.
“This year was a tough year for a lot of people, choosing where to spend their discretionary dollars with inflation and everything. But when everybody was complaining about price rises at the grocery store, a lot of our vendors were keeping their prices still competitive. So you could still get good deals at the Market, and I think people began to realize that.”
Ridler commented that it helped a lot that SNAP and EBT spending limits were increased fourfold this year, so more of those dollars could be used at the Farmers’ Markets. He also noted that the success of the Farmers’ Market is closely tied to the success of the downtown businesses.
“As it relates to the rest of downtown, we try to blend the Market into the rest of downtown. We find out that a lot of people will come and get their lunch either from us or from one of the downtown restaurants. We see people shopping and eating, and then coming back and doing more shopping. We see a lot of foot traffic on Saturdays as a result of the Market,” he said. “We like to hope that if someone comes to the Market and they’ve got their hands full with a lot of bags, they’ll see these stores and come back another day.”
Going into 2024, Ridler wants to see the Market’s momentum continue with the incoming administration. He’s hoping to tighten the Market’s footprint up a little so that it’s not quite so sprawled out, but still with enough space for social distancing for customer safety and comfort.
Charlotte Guyton, owner of Bard & Baker Board Game Café, says that her business benefited directly from the success of the Farmers’ Market, allowing the company to have a great 2023.
“The Market has helped to boost our customers,” she said. “It was instrumental in helping to support the surrounding businesses. This year has been when people have been coming out in full force — it finally feels like the first year post-COVID.”
Bard & Baker’s big development this year was the closure of their Albany location in favor of expanding their Troy flagship store, allowing them to host nonstop events and special programming.
“It’s been such a pleasure, because we’ve been able to interact with so many other great small businesses and we’ve been able to build community,” Guyton commented. “From a small business owner’s standpoint, it feels really nice to be centralized. It’s made me more focused, having a lot more mental clarity on what we’re doing.”
Looking ahead to 2024, Guyton can’t wait to host more special events, including themed events such as the Café’s monthly Pixel to Plate dinners by Chef Brian Connor.
In summary, Troy businesses appear to have done well overall in 2023, despite the challenges the city faced, and there is optimism for 2024.
Read this story online at the Troy Record.
