Officials Visit South Bronx Stores To Help Avoid Fines

By ISAAC MONTEROSE

Several South Bronx businesses were visited by City Councilman Rafael Salamanca Jr. and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Lorelei Salas  on Thursday in an effort to inform business owners about city regulations regarding their stores.

 The pair spent an hour doing a “Business Education Day” tour of  stores in the 3rd Avenue South Bronx neighborhood known as “The Hub”. The point of the event was to inform business owners about certain regulations so that they could avoid various penalties. Salamanca described it as an “initiative to continue to promote the economy here in the South Bronx .”

 The marketplace is home to many businesses that could be subject to said penalties if, for example, they don’t have the proper signage that indicates their business’ refund policy or if they set up their wares on a sidewalk at the wrong time of day.

 Salas said that the purpose behind the event is not penalize store owners but to “be there present with them and telling them, ‘This is what you need to do, this is the kind of poster you need to have or the kind of sign you need to have.’”

As it happened, the stores they visited seemed to have all receipts and signs in order after being asked a few questions by a Department of Consumer Affairs inspector. In all, five businesses were visited including a Cohen Fashion Optical store and a furniture store called Jerusalem Furniture. The employees and owners of the stores were largely receptive to the inspector’s questions but one clothing store employee at Expo 2000 asked that more police be assigned to the area.

 “We have a lot of minority businesses, immigrant businesses that have come to this country, worked really hard and they really don’t understand certain rules,” said Salamanca , who represents the area , “and we’re here just to educate them…just the really minor things that we can do to educate them to prevent them from getting summonses.”

Salamanca described the summonses as “costly” for small business owners.

 Photo by Isaac Monterose