Shoresides Economic Report

Want to vote early in coastal North Carolina? Here's how.¿Quieres votar temprano en la costa de Carolina del Norte? Escucha este anuncio.

Just as Ocracoke Island businesses were finishing renovations and repairs to infrastructural damage from Hurricane Dorian of 2019, the island shut down. Ocracoke local and Village Craftsman manager Amy Howard explains how her business responds to the...

"Our goal is to feed as many people as possible and not leave a carbon footprint." Ron Simmons, founder of Master Blend Family Farms and 2018 NC Small Farmer of the Year, talks about how he believes in sustainability and feeding his neighbors during...

As tourist season gets going on the Outer Banks, restaurants scramble to balance consumer demand and their own safety. Dylan Ownes is a seasonal cook at an Outer Banks Restaurant called The Bonzer Shack. Ownes speaks about how things are different this summer - more orders, more hours, and fewer staff.

Jeremy King, a grain farmer from Ash, North Carolina, tells us how COVID-19 has added a level of complexity to farmers' workflow across the region. King explains the domino affect that labor shortages, increased demand, lower prices, and changing operations have had on farmers, and he says there is concern among farmers about local mills closing. King considers serious hurdles he may face if COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

The Outer Banks had a unique opportunity to completely shut off travel during the North Carolina's statewide shelter-in-place order; only residents were allowed on and off of the islands. While this helped contain the spread of COVID-19, it also affected local businesses. Harvey Hess, general manager of his family-owned restaurant Capt'n Franks, and Christine Davidson, co-owner of Mystic Jewel, discuss the effect of this bridge closure on their businesses. And how they are attempting to strike a balance between keeping their businesses alive and staying safe.

Jennifer Hall and her partner Ron have worked at Pizza Village in Whiteville, North Carolina for 32 years. The two had just taken over the restaurant when restaurants across the state shut down. Hall says they had to make changes - taking orders outside, ordering more paper products, assigning parking spaces to customers "in line" for pizza. And she says phase two of reopening the economy has only brought more challenges.

When COVID-19 shut down businesses across North Carolina, Molly Hess's job became more... complicated. Hess works as a staff accountant and QuickBooks pro advisor at Johnson, Mizelle, Strava, and Murphy in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. She handles the accounting for many local business in the Outer Banks. With the unrolling of PPP loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Grants, Hess says her workload doubled when the pandemic started. And she talks about how she managed working from home while raising her 16-month-old son.