So much changed in 2020 because of Covid. We had so many businesses close (small and big) in 2020 and 2021. Hopefully, 2022 will be better for Ocean County.

I was hoping when 2021 would come, everything would go back to normal. Well, normal as we knew it. That didn't happen. I was waiting for the magical unicorn to swoosh on in and change things, nothing changed.

I Still Can't Believe These 10 Businesses and Restaurants are Closed in Ocean County

With this new surge of covid strains, will more businesses close in 2022? I hope not.

We are all about shopping "local" and helping out small businesses, the ma and pa's of local businesses need us now more than ever. How were local businesses supposed to make it through such a rough time? We have rebounded slightly but businesses and employees are still hurting.

Something else I noticed this year more than ever, empty strip malls. They just look horrible and it seems they've been empty forever. That's a blog for a different time. Kathy from Brick just wrote me, GNC closed, too. And, how could I forget about Social 37 closing? So sad.  I'm sure there are many more.

The COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates were so expensive for local businesses to uphold, let's hope and pray it doesn't go back that way.

This summer and fall were amazing for restaurants and hopefully, they were able to catch up from the year that everything shut down. But, here we are at the holidays, it's getting colder, hopefully, we will all still go to local restaurants and shops.

It's just about a week until Christmas, maybe a gift certificate at one of your favorite local restaurants or shops for a family member would make a great stocking stuffer.

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