![]() Their friend, Jessica Moore, who lives in New Bedford, said Faneuil Hall wasn't as busy as she remembered it. "It's a little bit more relaxing and back to kind of normality.” "It's really nice to be able to go out and see people without masks and stuff like that," Day said. "It's been really exciting, honestly, to see everybody kind of out walking around," Huffman said. ![]() It was the first time they'd traveled for vacation since the start of the pandemic. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)Īmong those strolling through the area on Monday were Heather Huffman and Morgan Day, who were visiting from Colorado. "So we're seeing daily numbers steadily increase.” Visitor walk through Quincy Market at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. “Now that, you know, the mask restrictions are lifted, the vaccination restrictions are lifted, people are coming into the city, they're taking advantage of, you know, not having international tourism too much right now," he said. Overall, he said, he's optimistic about the future. O'Malley said he expects to fill roughly a dozen vacancies by the summer, which would push the number of merchants back up to over 100. Not every business has come back to Faneuil Hall some had to shut their doors for good. “It just made me open an account on Instagram, Etsy, Amazon," Murat said. Murat took up yoga and meditation, and found other ways to adapt, too, like trying to grow her business online. you still appreciate the things that you have." But, I mean, at the end of the day, if there's like a pandemic going on and you cannot work and there's no money coming in . “It's not the end of the world," she said. She drained her savings account. Still, Murat said she learned to accept the hard times as they came. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)Īt times, she said she was unable to pay rent or make loan payments on some of her debts. Elif Murat, owner of Lucky Decor, by her stand in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. She owns two pushcarts in Quincy Market, where she sells custom embroidery and home goods. tumbleweeds in the area, we would have seen them.”Įlif Murat is another merchant trying to make up for financial losses she incurred during the pandemic. O'Malley estimated that the marketplace is now drawing thousands of daily visitors, up significantly from the height of the pandemic, when he counted no more than 100 per day. While masks are not required, some people still choose to wear them. ![]() (Robin Lubbock/WBUR) Visitors in both levels of the rotunda at Quincy Market. At lunchtime tables are filled upstairs in the rotunda at Quincy Market. “I'll admit, I was afraid," he said, noting that some merchants rely on their businesses as a sole source of income. But for the first 18 months of the pandemic, General Manager Joe O'Malley said the best he could do was offer tenants some rent relief and focus on COVID safety measures. The marketplace's management is focused on attracting visitors, too. "We want locals to come down here and have a good time, walk through here and make it a destination.” A lot of people think that this has been a tourist trap for years and years, and we're not a tourist trap," he said. Maherakis, who is also the newly elected president of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace Merchants' Association, is working with other business owners to try to solve challenges like staffing shortages, and how to drum up more visitors. Some merchants have had to shut their doors for good, and for those who kept going, there are large losses to make up. Foot traffic is up significantly, according to management, but it still hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels. Two years after the shutdown, business is steadily returning to Quincy Market and the rest of Faneuil Hall Marketplace. They helped us out, and it's turning around,” he said. Over that first year of the pandemic, he estimates business went down by 80-85%. The family might have shuttered the stall for good, but managed to stay open. we're not going to survive." George Maherakis, owner of Fisherman's Net, arranges scallops at his storefront in Quincy Market. We thought we weren't going to make it," he said of the business, which he co-owns with his father. “It's been a rollercoaster ride in here for the last two years. Even after a gradual reopening began a few months later, and even after his restaurant, Fisherman's Net, began serving takeout again, the business struggled. He was floored when Massachusetts shut down nonessential businesses on March 24, 2020, in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. George Maherakis has been working at a seafood stall in Quincy Market since the early '90s, when he was a teenager. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR) This article is more than 1 year old. Visitors walk through Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
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