Mastercard, a credit card company, has analyzed data on customer spending with Mastercard in New York City since the Communist China virus (COVID-19) pandemic and found that Asian communities were hit earlier and harder by COVID-19; however, the analysis also found that supermarkets in Chinese communities did better than in 2019 before the pandemic, as people ate out less during the pandemic, especially in Flushing.
The report, entitled “NYC Asian communities hit earlier and harder by COVID-19” (NYC Asian communities hit earlier and harder by COVID-19), was written by Edward Lee, a Chinese-American big data expert at Mastercard.
The picture shows an empty New York restaurant on New Year’s Eve, Jan. 24, before last year’s outbreak.
The statistics show that the decline in spending in Manhattan’s Chinatown and Flushing affected by the outbreak is more severe than the overall decline in spending in New York City.
Flushing restaurant business started to decline from January 2020, which appeared earlier than New York City as a whole.
Manhattan Chinatown restaurant business declines from February 2020, earlier than in New York City as a whole.
MasterCard took weekly consumer spending data from January to September 2020 and compared it to the same period in 2019. The focus is on five neighborhoods, three of which are Manhattan’s Chinatown, Flushing and Jackson Heights, which have large Asian populations, and two lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods (Brooklyn East New York, Jamaica, Queens) that have many small Family-owned businesses, including supermarkets, grocery stores and restaurants.
The Chinese community was affected earlier and more visibly by the CCP virus Epidemic beginning in late February of last year, when consumer spending in New York City fell 65% overall and accelerated by March of last year, but the decline in spending in the Asian community was even greater. By early March, consumer spending in Chinatown (especially restaurants) was down nearly 82%. In Flushing and Jackson Heights, spending was down 71% and 73%, respectively. Since restaurants are the mainstay of the Asian community’s economy, the outbreak hit Asians particularly hard.
A report by McKinsey & Company shows that Asian businesses, nationwide, account for a significant share (26%) of the lodging and Food service industry. In Chinatown, New York, restaurant transactions account for 40% of total spending, compared to 24% New York City-wide. By March 2020, restaurant spending across New York City had fallen by 85%, and the decline was even more dramatic in Chinatown and Flushing, where the amount of restaurant spending fell off a cliff in both locations, by about 96%. But Chinatown business was affected earlier, six weeks earlier than all of New York City. New York City as a whole began to see a decline in restaurant spending on March 2 of last year, but Chinatown and Flushing restaurants have seen a drop in spending since January 20.
McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) found a similar trend nationwide, as the COVID-19 virus came from China, and people were afraid to spend money in Asian communities out of fear of the virus, even though there were no or few reported cases in the U.S. at the Time, but Asian community businesses were the first to close.
In addition, nearly one-third of Asian restaurants take cash and only one-quarter of Asian restaurants have online marketing, but in the West Village (WV), 70% of restaurants have online marketing. With takeout becoming a lifeline for restaurants, Chinatown restaurants were unable to quickly transition to online operations. After the outbreak, the share of online transactions for restaurants and supermarkets in New York City doubled from a year ago to 24%, but online transactions in the Asian community, only improved to 3.2%. The lack of e-commerce has also slowed access to government relief aid for the Asian community, according to the Asian American Federation of New York (AAFNY). Many businesses keep their books on paper, which makes it difficult to provide the required documentation through online applications. Language barriers are also an issue, as many application forms do not have translated versions.
Supermarket business soars in Flushing, but Chinatown businesses dependent on tourists lag in response Supermarket-type business soared at the beginning of the outbreak, but Chinatown, which relies on tourists, appears to be lagging. Supermarket spending spiked from March to June as people stayed Home, and people are still spending slightly more at supermarkets than last year as we move into summer and fall. Supermarket (food, grocery, grocery store) spending in Asian communities spiked from March to June last year (except in Chinatown). Flushing, in particular, saw a dramatic rebound in supermarket business and was well above 2019 levels for much of the summer and fall. For Chinatown businesses, the customers are usually tourists or people buying specialty tourist goods, so Chinatown’s supermarket business is not higher than in 2019, but rather local stores are affected by fewer tourists.
Jackson Heights, Queens is another diverse neighborhood, but less dependent on tourists, with customers spending slightly more in supermarkets than in 2019. As can be seen from the chart, after the outbreak in mainland China, Chinese in New York City began stocking up on food, and supermarket business in Flushing began to soar from the end of February, peaking before the implementation of the at-home order on March 23. And then there was a precipitous decline due to the home-based order, but by late April it began to rebound, and by May business surpassed 2019 and has remained at a high level.
Mastercard said it hopes the data will help the government make decisions about allocating resources and provide a reference point for decision-making. ◇
With the exception of a few weeks when supermarkets were briefly closed, Flushing supermarkets are outperforming 2019 overall in 2020.
Supermarket, food, and grocery business in New York City was slightly better from January-September 2020 than the same period in 2019.
With the overall business of supermarkets, food, and grocery stores in New York City better than the same period in 2019, Chinatown lags slightly behind the change in supermarket business because it is primarily a tourist business.
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