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Small Business Comeback Tour: Bagels by Jarrett
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
WEST ORANGE, NJ (WCBS 880) – Jarrett Seltzer tapped into a “cult” following of bagel lovers.
Just before the pandemic, Seltzer started giving away his homemade bagels out of his home kitchen.
“I decided to make a dozen bagels and post (on Facebook) that I had them and give them out,” he said. “I said to everyone the rule is you get one bagel, you have to post a review about it and you have to pay it forward somehow in town.”
Seltzer told Joe Connolly on the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G, the response was overwhelming. He opened a pop-up shop where he continued to give away bagels to gain a following before opening his business about two years later in West Orange.
“We are absolutely continuing to grow by word of mouth,” he said, pointing to a fall surge in bagel sales.
Seltzer said growth accelerated when they were forced to do curbside only in the pandemic and discovered how they would separate themselves from other bagel shops. Bagels by Jarrett added sliders and fried chicken sandwiches with bagels, which became big hits among their regular customers.
“It’s almost this interesting cult of people that love food and I don’t put anything out that isn’t incredible,” he said.
Bagels by Jarrett is expanding its kitchen in January and will add dinner takeout service.
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92nd Street Y Goes Global with Success of Virtual Events
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — This iconic New York cultural institution has amassed a worldwide following after making the digital pivot.
The 92nd Street Y drew 5 million viewers in all 50 states plus 200 countries for its various online programs in the last year. In a typical pre-pandemic year, about 300,000 people would walk through its Upper East Side doors.
“The trick was to increase interactivity to make sure that people felt that the person that they were watching was in some way responding to them,” said Seth Pinsky, CEO of 92nd Street Y. “The way I like to describe it is that we went from competing with YouTube with videos that talked ‘to’ our audience to eventually finding our own version of these videos by creating programming that spoke ‘with’ our audience and that really was, I think, the key to our success.”
On the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, Pinsky told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso 92Y tried new ways of doing virtual programs until they discovered how to differentiate themselves from the steep competition.
“I don’t think that every production necessarily has to be top top quality,” he said. “I think really it’s the combination of a level of quality that’s high enough that it’s not distracting to people, but again, it’s those extra intangible elements like the creation of community that when added to that are what I think pull audiences in, and over time, keep them.”
The 92nd Street Y has a full slate of original programs, classes and performances. Some of them are now exclusively virtual for their global audience even though the center in Manhattan is back open after being shut down during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The idea of creating content and just giving it away was something that over the long-run, we realized, wouldn’t be sustainable. And so, in some cases, we started to put our programming behind a paywall, and, amazingly, what we found was that our audience was willing to pay for the content,” said Pinsky.
He told WCBS 880 that roughly 60 percent of the 92nd Street Y’s new paying virtual audience members are from outside the New York Metropolitan Area and live in all parts of the world.
“Suddenly we realized that we were no longer just a New York institution, we were truly a global institution,” Pinsky said.
See how to make virtual events better and engage new customers through quality digital content on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
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Small Business Comeback Tour: BrownMill Company
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEWARK, NJ (WCBS 880) – This small business has created a local lifestyle brand and an experience in Downtown Newark.
Justis Pitt-Goodson told Joe Connolly business is “booming” at BrownMill Company since opening a retail location at 49 Halsey St. in June.
On the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G, Pitt-Goodson explained they had built their online brand over the last 12 years, but it was always a dream of his to have a brick-and-mortar store. He took advantage of lower rents during the COVID-19 pandemic and set up shop.
“The community came out and supported and it’s been up from there,” said Pitt-Goodson.
Connolly pointed out it seems the custom tailor has a local barbershop feel where customers come to hang out.
“People consider it a hub of creativity and a place of inspiration,” Pitt-Goodson said.
Part of that inspiration comes from within. The recent Rutgers University graduate is motivated by his father to pay success forward, so BrownMill Company was founded as a social enterprise.
The company co-sponsors Giving 1/10th – a community garden in Newark that aims to increase access to fresh and organic vegetables for local residents. BrownMill Company also hosts weekly basketball camps in Pitt-Goodson’s hometown of Piscataway.
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Hungerthon 2021: Tom Chapin carries on brother’s legacy fighting hunger, poverty 40 years after his death
By Neil A. Carousso, Wayne Cabot and Tom Kaminski
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Hunger and poverty is an issue made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, but WhyHunger believes it is solvable.
“Food is a right, not a privilege,” said musician Tom Chapin of the non-profit organization’s motto.
WhyHunger helped 1,036,065 people find access to nutritious food and essential services last year through their hotline and online resources. Through its COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, it has mobilized $845,223 in emergency funding to 42 partner organizations and social movements across 8 countries.
Those rapid responses include distributing food, medications and PPE to vulnerable people, supporting food banks and pantries to meet rising demand during the pandemic, and developing the capacity of farmers to grow sustainable food while also developing a local distribution infrastructure.
“Almost 12 million children don’t know what they’re going to eat this week,” said Chapin. “Those numbers are drastic. The good news is, WhyHunger has been, since 1975, putting hungry people in touch with food, helping them towards self-reliance, and really, working toward food justice.”
As a board member, Tom Chapin has taken the mantle from his late brother Harry Chapin who founded WhyHunger in 1975 with radio DJ Bill Ayers. Harry tragically died in a car crash on July 16, 1981 on his way to a free benefit concert at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, Long Island.
“As Harry said when he was really a major star, ‘You know, it’s really cool I’m doing this, but being a rock star is not an end in itself,’” Tom Chapin recalled. “He always felt that he had a bully pulpit, which was pretty remarkable. I mean, you think about we talk about this guy now 40 years later and not even about the songs so much but about this idea that he had that so many other people have picked up and carried on. It’s kind of humbling and also just kind of magical.”
Annually through its Hungerthon auction and various partnerships, including with WCBS Newsradio 880 and the station’s parent company Audacy, WhyHunger brings together radio personalities and celebrities to raise money to put an end to hunger in America. Listeners can bid on exclusive in-person and virtual experiences, including a private concert from Chapin and his band.
“The real heroes here are not me,” he said, continuing, “It’s the people who have kept it going and the day-to-day people at WhyHunger and all of our partners – those are the real heroes here – and the people we’re talking to who open up their pocketbooks, and say, ‘Yeah, I want to be part of this. I want to help.’”
See how you can join the fight against hunger and poverty and get a sneak peek of Harry Chapin’s private concert auction item on the video above.
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Small Business Comeback Tour: Child’s Play Challenge Courses
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ (WCBS 880) – There’s no obstacle this couple can’t crush.
Lauren and Matt Borawski from Scotch Plains, Union County are the founders of Child’s Play Challenge Courses, which designs portable obstacle courses for people ages 2 and up. They’ve become the toast of kids’ birthday parties, but they also run programs for adults and special needs individuals of all physical abilities.
“We didn’t want to compete with all of the other ninja gyms,” Lauren told Joe Connolly. “We come to you.”
On the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G, the couple explained how they pivoted to meet demand for COVID-safe outdoor experiences. One of those pivots included setting up obstacle courses at summer camps that kept kids in a so-called bubble to prevent the virus from spreading among unvaccinated age-groups.
“We go right to the schools, we go right to the camps,” said Lauren who has 30 years of experience in event planning and as a TV operations manager.
Her husband, Matt, designs the courses, and as a certified personal trainer, he leads their exercise programs.
Child’s Play Challenge Courses is now operating in seven states and the Borawskis are looking to franchise the business as they finish their strongest year in terms of revenue despite the pandemic.
“We’ve had over 100,000 people crushing our courses and that’s what’s so great and so unique about us is that we go to wherever this event, party, school, function is.”
