Any New York based storefront merchants?

 have a local-social shopping community idea. I've been talking with local business owners and shoppers, and it seems that local businesses have a hard time connecting with the shoppers. This was something Red Hook Alliance (a neighborhood business alliance) pointed out as well--they said that local shoppers would love to shop more from local stores but often they have to buy from Amazon because they can't find the product they're looking for. That got me thinking of creating a community that connects small business owners to local shoppers. Basically, this community would be for all Brooklyn mission-driven small businesses and for residents to share ideas and support each other by forming real relationships with one another. There is no channel for this kind of communication right now. Would this be something you would join as a local retail store owner?