Black Friday officially kicks off holiday shopping. However, small businesses have had a tough time over the last few years since the pandemic. A record store in Manayunk recently took a gut punch that jeopardized their chance to be open this holiday weekend. NBC10’s Karen Hua has the story.
A 49-year-old man was hospitalized early Tuesday, after the van he was driving slammed into the front door of a record store in Philadelphia's Manayunk neighborhood.
According to police, the incident happened at about 6:15 a.m., when a 49-year-old driver lost control of his vehicle while headed southbound along the 4400 block of Main Street.
Officials said the driver told police that his "tire started to wobble" and he crashed into another vehicle before driving the van into the front door of Main Street Music on Main Street in Manayunk.
The driver, police said, was taken to a nearby hospital where he has been placed in stable condition.
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"Couldn't believe it. It's just like, it just seems surreal. It could've been worse because the pictures were pretty scary," Pat Feeney, the owner of Main Street Music, told NBC10. "I used to think about like, that somebody was going to throw a rock through the window and we were going to get robbed in the middle of the night or something like that. But never thought this would happen."
Jamie Blood, the manager of the store, was the first person to rush in after the crash.
"Small Business Saturday is huge for this street so just the fact that it wasn't packed with people around, that made it pretty lucky," Blood said.
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While Feeney and Blood are happy that no customers or employees were hurt, the timing of the crash was still rough for the store with their biggest sales weekend of the year only days away due to Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and National Record Store Day.
"We spend so much money on inventory," Feeney said. "I don't know what we'd do. We might have been out on the sidewalk if we had to I guess."
Fortunately for Feeney and Blood, Good Samaritans stepped in to help, cleaning up debris and replacing the door only hours after the crash.
"We are fine to open for the weekend," Blood said. "It's just going to be a little chilly in here."
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