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Eastern Market supporters plan summer advertising blitz
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(Andrew Harnik/Examiner file)
Mayor Adrian Fenty announces the temporary structure to house the 13 merchants displaced by the April 30 Eastern Market fire in Washington on May 18. An organization created to support Eastern Market merchants displaced by an April 30 fire is planning an advertising blitz to let the public know the vendors are still in business. Business has been slower than usual during the week but even fewer people are coming to the market on weekends, market deli owner Carlos Canales said. The foot traffic has dropped despite news reports that merchants will operate on the sidewalk outside the South Hall until July. By then, a temporary market to house them is expected to be completed. Gary Peterson, who chairs the Capitol Hill Community Foundation’s Eastern Market Keep It Going fund, has said it will pay between $25,000 to $30,000 to run advertising in local publications and radio stations to inform people that the market is operating until the temporary location opens. A public relations firm is also donating its services pro bono, Peterson said. “I don’t think people were aware that the people who were inside the building are outside the building,” Canales said. He resumed operating last week after receiving help from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation to cover the cost of a refrigerated truck. “A lot of people heard when the market burned that everything was gone, there was nothing left to sell. You had a loss of people coming to walk through,” Peterson said. “We’re doing all kinds of things to get people back.” Only about half of the 13 merchants who worked in the market’s South Hall, which the blaze destroyed, operated on the sidewalk outside the market Friday. Peterson said all of the displaced merchants will eventually reopen in the temporary market but at least three popular businesses will be absent from the sidewalk in June. The owners of Market Lunch, Southern Maryland Seafood and Union Meats will not have the room or resources needed to operate, Peterson said. “Right now, I know they’re working on trying to set up for the temporary building,” Peterson said. cmabeus@dcexaminer.com |
