DETROIT (WXYZ) — Beacon Park in Downtown Detroit is more than a place for folks to enjoy the summer.
As one of the city's top sustainable parks, Beacon Park is now also helping local businesses with its summer events series.
The Saturday Night Market is one of them. The event showcases metro Detroit products and services and supports small businesses.
"With small businesses, I feel like a lot of people want to know the creator and the owner of the business. Events like this help you to know the owner personally," said Courtney Hamilton, owner of For The Love of Cheesecake.
A home-grown business, Hamilton whipped up instead of pursuing a career as a dental hygienist.
"What challenges do small businesses encounter that folks don't understand?" asked 7 Action News.
"Right now, the biggest thing I'm encountering is inflation," said Hamilton.
Courtney says, at the moment, ingredient prices are sky high. For instance, a large cake used to sell for $75, but now it's priced at $100.
"The most expensive ingredient is cream cheese. I use Philadelphia cream cheese, and it's literally tripled in price since I've started to make cheesecakes," said Hamilton.
Josh Milson is a manager at Lumen Detroit. He has been in the restaurant industry for over 20 years. Josh says the current economic climate makes it one of the most challenging times to operate a small-sized business, with average operating costs up by 15% to 20%.
"You can't price something at one point, you know, one week, and then the guest comes back after two weeks and wants the same item, and it's 30% more," said Milson.
"So then, what do you do?" asked 7 Action News.
"Either take it off the menu or eat the cost," said Milson.
A juggling act for many, and that's why the curator of several events across metro Detroit, Jennyfer Crawford, says folks need to start supporting small businesses more than before.
"Because there were a lot of resources during the pandemic. There were grants. There were a lot of people... supporting small businesses and creating opportunities for getting funding. And right now, there is a decline in that," said Crawford.
Beacon Park manager Chris Polk says one of the goals of the summer event series is to connect local vendors to the community.
"It's really to create this ecosystem of support, engagement, and entrepreneurship. Again whether it's your lunch break or whether you want to exercise during the day. People are just really looking for open spaces that are clean and accessible," said Polk.
For details on Beacon Park's summer event series, visit empoweringmichigan.com/beacon-park.
