With thousands of employees out of work, museums set to close, and fewer options for tourists, some downtown business owners fear the government shutdown will begin affecting their pockets.
“Unfortunately, we walked all the way to the archives museum and it was closed,” Brittany Swainston, who is visiting from Florida, said.
The government shut down forced the Swainston family to change their plans and hit one of the museums expected to close on Wednesday.
They zipped past vendors in the rain on New Year’s Eve where the people working inside of booths and trucks are worried about their cash flow drying up.
“You’re not making money. No pocket money,” one vendor said.
“Not busy,” a food truck owner explained colder months are typically slow. “Summer time a little bit OK.”
While mobile downtown business owners said this time of year is typically slow, business during the government shut down is expected to move at a glacial pace.
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Some people do not know what they are going to do to provide for their families.
“It’s definitely sad. It is a sad reality,” Swainston told WUSA9. “I don’t think I really thought about how much it is impacting everyone until we got down here and actually saw for ourselves.”
While some visitors took it upon themselves to support the businesses, vendors said it will take much more than a few bucks to make up for expected losses during this government shutdown.