Long Branch Business League
Volume 13
Join the Business League
IN THIS ISSUE
Over the last six years the Long Branch Business League, with its Discover Long Branch! initiative, has helped transform the image of Long Branch’s commercial center. We bring art, murals, color and creativity to Long Branch. Our Discover Long Branch! campaign also sponsors regular outdoor and indoor events that have helped rebrand Long Branch as a family-friendly and creative place. Meanwhile, the Business League's newsletter keeps you up-to-date on important events, local business news, and business tips. Membership has many benefits, including: − Access to generous store design improvements grants − Greater visibility via the DiscoverLongBranch.com website − Help with Enterprise Zone tax credit applications − Greater strength and a voice in the county for Long Branch
Carlos Perozo, President
Checks to: Long Branch Business League, 8736 Flower Ave., Suite B, Silver Spring, MD 20901 Credit Card: discoverlongbranch.com (‘join’, top right)
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And with big changes coming to our area because of the Purple Line, now more than ever we need to stand together to make sure all of us benefit from the expanded customer base the Purple Line will bring.
Stores Fight Big Forces Page 1 Portrait of Long Branch Page 2 Fun Facts Page 2 Long Branch Charm in Pictures Page 2
5K Run Info (poster) Page 3
Resources: Small Business Development Center SBDC provides counseling and classes. Counselors speak Spanish and other languages. sbtdc-training@umd.edu 301-403-0501x11 7100 Baltimore Ave, Suite 303, College Park, MD 20740
Department of Permitting Responsible for all permits to make property improvements and signage. permittingservices.montgomerycountymd.gov 240-777-0311 County Executive’s Business Solutions Group
Enterprise Zone Tax Credit Program Access to County tax credits for real estate improvements and employee hiring. Mr. Pete McGinnity peter.mcginnity@montgomerycountymd.gov 240-777-8126
Judith Stephenson
Montgomery County Council county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov 240-777-7900
Assistance with County licensing and regulations
Montgomery County (All other services) See a street light that is out? Need a bulk trash pick up? There is now a single number to call for all County services: (5 requests annually) 311 (English) 311 + 1 (para Español) Emergencies/Emergencias— 911
www.montgomerycountymd.gov/biz Montgomery County Police Non-emergency dispatch for Long Branch: 301 279-8000 (All emergencies: 911)
Department of Liquor Control DLC licenses and regulates all businesses that sell alcohol. Emily DeTitta emily.detitta@montgomerycountymd.gov 240-777-1904
Long Branch Business News, a monthly publication, Paul Grenier, Editor 301-812-4141 pgrenier@MHPartners.org
Beset by Powerful Forces, Long Branch Stores Find Hidden Strengths The word ‘Business’ can be deceptive. It can refer to Amazon Inc. — or to the corner grocery store, even though the two have essentially nothing in common. Titans of the business world can influence – sometimes even define – their own regulation. While nothing is absolute, in many ways the big guys control their own survival. They have lawyers. They have publicity. They have access.
a property owner should choose to tear down and rebuild – what recourse does the small business have, but to move, in accordance with the fine print in their lease agreement? In such a case, all the years and money invested in this particular space, and building this particular clientele, can easily be lost. Rents for the typical retailer go up at least 3% per year. One Long Branch See p. 3, Hidden
Strengths
Long Branch’s small businesses have almost none of these things. As one store owner told the Newsletter last month, “We have no power.” The feeling is understandable. In some ways a Medieval peasant farmer had it easier! Tradition and custom offered some stability at least.
Rising Rents, Costs
240-777-2012 judith.stephenson@montgomerycountymd.gov
Long Branch Business League
March 2020
Almost nothing is stable for the typical Long Branch small business. If Supported
Reliable Cleaner’s Helen Kim (left) serving a customer.
Long Branch Business League March Meeting Wednesday, March 4, 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. El Gavilan Restaurant, 8805 Flower Ave., Silver Spring
Did You Know? Fun Facts About Long Branch Stores
At P&P Cyber Computers, in addition to laptop purchase and repair, you can also get Xerox copies made (8703 Flower Ave.). New World Wireless sells and repairs cell phones. But they also make house keys (8705 Flower Ave.). There are some one million distinct items for sale at Long Branch’s Dollar Century Plus (8713 Flower) and Dollar City (8503 Piney Branch Rd.). You can get curtains for your home, church or office at Flower Designs -- also clothing alterations and new clothing (8703 Flower Ave.). Italian cappuccino and freshly made croissants are available at El Arbol de Pan bakery (8545 Piney Branch Rd.). Diner-style breakfast, including eggs, pancakes and sausage, is available all day at the Flower Deli (8707 Flower Ave.). Ocean City Seafood, world famous for Eve, the Calico lobster, is locally famous for its fresh fish (8745 Flower Ave.).
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DiscoverLongBranch.com
DiscoverLongBranch.com
Portrait of a Small Business District
Despite Feeling ‘Powerless,’ Stores Have a Strategy — and Allies
Downtown Long Branch is surrounded by larger, better-known shopping districts. It has no Macy’s, no Apple Store. Its retailers – like retailers everywhere – keenly feel the dark shadow of Internet pricing and convenience. Despite the challenges, Long Branch stores persist, sometimes thrive. They do so by offering what the larger and more impersonal locations cannot. The enchanting, intimate smells of pastries freshly made right there in the store. The security of giving your favorite wool sweater -- or your federal taxes paperwork -- to someone you actually know and trust. Also the pleasure of seeing the same
waiter, or salesperson, or hair cutter, year after year, and the somethinglike-a-real-friendship that, in Long Branch at least, often grows out of such familiarity. It is the absence of that kind of informality and personal touch – so often found in Long Branch -- that makes online shopping such a joyless even if ‘efficient’ experience. The authenticity of the Long Branch experience is largely defined by its brick and mortar stores. Some of the lesser-known peculiarities of its stores are listed in the sidebar at left. [Share your own fun facts with the Newsletter! See bottom of back page for contact info.]
The Relaxed Charm of Long Branch Left (top): Artwork on the walls of the Flower Designs seamstress shop inside P&P Cyber Computers (8703 Flower Ave.).
Hidden Strengths, from p. 1 retailer recently saw their rents skyrocket 25% in a single year. That same store’s earnings, meanwhile, were flat. Such cases are not at all untypical. And the unpredictability is by no means restricted only to rents. In the case of Reliable Cleaners, a county-wide class action lawsuit brought against G&G Towing left the well-liked local cleaners in a terrible situation. Despite having clearly posted noparking/towing signs on their small private parking lot, Reliable is being forced to pay out more than $60,000 to persons legally towed from their own lot -- a burden that has drained over $4,000 from their coffers every month since late 2019.
industry consultants. What is more, thanks to actions taken by the Business League and MHP, the property owner who had raised rental costs by 25% agreed to lower them somewhat. As this article goes to print, the LBBL is attempting to reduce the financial burden that has been imposed on Reliable Cleaners. The outcome of those efforts, to be sure, remain uncertain. Fortunately for Reliable Cleaners, they have a strong customer fan base appreciative of the Kims’ kindness and consistent dry cleaning quality. Culture – both the store’s and that of the neighborhood -- may end up saving the day for them. Indeed, as noted in ‘Portrait of a Small Business District’ (this Newsletter, p.2), Long Branch’s commercial culture is distinctive, charming — and getting more so every day.
Little Guy Fights Back Such challenges, which are by no means unique to Long Branch, have inspired this neighborhood’s small businesses and their non-profit partners, such as MHP and LEDC, to unite and find creative ways to try to even the odds. The strategy of the Long Branch Business League (LBBL) includes rebranding local business as essential to the neighborhood’s culture. Indeed, that was the logic behind last September’s transformative eight-day Long Branch festival — to which, incidentally, the County Parks and Planning departments hugely contributed.
Left (bottom): Handmade wooden birds and Salvadoranthemed design make the interior of Veronica’s Café and Bakery unique (8501 Piney Branch Rd.).
Today, the Business League, thanks to support from the County Executive and DHCA, is able to provide Long Branch small businesses some top-notch marketing, design and other consulting services. (Even more such assistance would be even better.)
Learn more about Long Branch stores from Fun Facts (text box at left), and from the DiscoverLongBranch.com website.
Businesses that get involved in these programs -ideally while also joining the Business League -get access to free social media marketing and receive free store design advice from leading
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