The Shutdown’s Impact On Forest Hills Businesses

How did the government furlough impact businesses in Forest Hills? We put the question to a few businesses in our neighborhood:

David Luria, Washington Photo Safari
Like many other businesses that depend upon customers’ disposable incomes, such as restaurants, stores, and tours, our Washington Photo Safari program was also impacted by the government shutdown, losing about 50% of our usual sign-up orders.

In an effort to “make lemons out of lemonade” we offered a special “Spontaneous Silly Shutdown Safari” for furloughed government workers, charging them only $10 for a $79 safari on October 4. We had so many people sign up that we had to organize another safari on October 6, for total of 32 employees furloughed from 19 government agencies! They appreciated being appreciated!

Ed Sands, Calvert Woodley
Definitely saw a downturn in customer count and people are still very tentative and nervous about making purchases even though the government is back.

Lacey Dunham, Politics and Prose
We had an uptick in business overall. More customers came to hang out in the coffee house and then wandered into the bookstore. We offered discounted rates on books on the three Fridays that federal workers were out of work, and on The Newsmakers Series, a series of ticketed events outside the store.

Bruce Maliken, Up and Running Computer Services
My business was affected. I had a number of cancellations.

Tell us: How was your business affected?