Supporting local businesses in advance of Small Business Saturday. One plaza in Norwich has bounced back in a big way after it was flooded during a storm last year in January.
At Small Potatoes in Norwich, owner Erica Sullivan has a lot to offer at her gift shop.
“Everything is unique. There’s something for everybody,” she said.
Sullivan is proud of what it has become as every vacant spot is filled with a business.
“To see us all thriving here, it’s brought it back for a lot of people,” she said.
But in January of last year, the plaza was flooded with water from the overflowing Yantic River. Sullivan and other business owners were closed for a month due to clean up.
“It all gave us an opportunity to kind of re-evaluate and dig in into our businesses,” she said.
The Norwich Community Development Corporation helped them reopen with funds to weather the storm, limiting the loss of revenue. Community manager Mary Riley says the businesses have bounced back and are thriving from their loyal customers and hopes the momentum continues with Small Business Saturday.
“The flood really helped people connect and really showed Norwich as a city as a resilient to be and a great business community to be a part of,” she said.
A community Aerial Arts Fitness recently joined about a month ago.
“We do bungee fitness. We do hammocks, we do lyra, we do aerial silks,” Sarah Luiz, a manager at Aerial Arts Fitness, said.
She says the plaza was perfect with plenty of parking and offered a lot of space for their classes. She says they’re prepared for future flooding through the help of their contractor.
“They raised up some of the outlets. They changed some stuff around to make sure when that happens, we have the minimal risk for our business,” Luiz said.
But Sullivan says there’s no risk to shopping locally for the holidays.
“Small Business Saturday for us is a chance to be a team and to do things for each other,” she said. Aerial Arts Fitness will have their grand opening on Small Business Saturday.
