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Broadway Market merchants adapt to lack of Easter Week crowds

Usuallly filled with throngs of Western New Yorkers buying Polish-specialty foods for Easter, this year the Broadway Market in Buffalo is just another place where shoppers are trying to stay safe and vendors  are trying to make do in the era of COVID-19.

Seasonal vendors are gone, crowds are thin and several shoppers could be seen wearing masks this weekend.

"It's like a ghost town," says Paula Kurasiewicz, who owns Pierogi by Paula, and is one of a handful of vendors operating inside the market, and hoping curbside pickup will make the difference.

Far from the maddening crowds this year, eating areas were marked by chairs overturned on tables and wraped with bright yellow caution tape.

Places where people would line up by the dozens in any other Holy week before Easter, now feature tape marks on the floor to suggest where people should stand to maintain proper social distancing.

"If people are afraid they're going to be bumping into other people. That's not the case. You know, very few people are here shopping, and I can't say I can blame them... but if you're going out to the grocery stores, you're safer coming into the market, because you're not going to be bumping into people," she says.

From The Market:

The Broadway Market is open, Monday through Saturday, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm and open Easter week, April 6 – April 11, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm for both your immediate shopping needs and all your Easter favorites. We are taking all necessary safety precautions at this time including social distancing mandates. Many of our market vendors offer on-line ordering and/or curbside pick up including Babcia Pierogi, Camellia Meats, Chrusciki Bakery, Lewandowski Produce, Lupas Meats, Pierogi by Paula, Potts Deli and We R Nuts. Call the market management office for additional information 716-893-0705.

"Everybody that's here is taking a hit. .. basically the money we make is what we make at Easter time, and that's not happening," Kurasiewicz says.