From the Editor

Celebrating Local Businesses When We Need Them Most 

By Meg Walburn Viviano

When it comes to business in the pandemic era, here are some phrases we’re getting tired of hearing: “Limited capacity,” “temporarily closed,” “event canceled.” 

When talking about local businesses in Bay communities, however, there are more positive phrases that come up over and over, like “adapting,” “expanded seating” and “shop from home.”  

Most notable is the above-and-beyond kindness we’ve seen in the local business community—from company owners, employees and customers. A gym member offers to help other members pay their gym dues; A computer repair company delivers a new printer to an elderly customer on their own time; a cleaning business owner starts a program to get hot restaurant meals to hungry people. 

All of these thoughtful gestures have taken place even while businesses scrambled to change their operations and institute new (sometimes costly) health measures. In the depths of Maryland’s stay-at-home order, we reported several inspiring stories of local business support.  

At CBM Bay Weekly, we found one of the strongest pieces of evidence of local support right here in our pages. So many of our advertisers—many of whom are small, local business owners—stuck by us even when their own livelihoods were in question. 

Bay Weekly is a free newspaper, produced for the benefit of everyone in Annapolis, Anne Arundel and Calvert counties and beyond. Each week our editorial team plans, writes, designs and delivers a paper meant to keep you informed of upcoming events, Chesapeake country news, and expert guidance to enjoy the outdoors and the arts. 

It is our advertisers, those locally-run businesses you see around town, that allow you to continue freely picking up CBM Bay Weekly, 52 weeks a year. We can’t think of a better time than now to roll out an issue celebrating the small businesses that have supported us through so much. Inside, you’ll find our annual Local Business Guide, a special issue offering readers a one-stop shop to find goods and services while supporting our advertisers (your neighbors around town). As you go through the guide, you’ll get to read the invention born of 2020’s unique challenges. 

You may also notice that a favorite business—maybe even the business where you picked up this very copy of Bay Weekly—is not among our loyal advertisers. If you like reading our paper, please encourage the shops where you do business to support us through advertising. 

Like the wide array of companies featured in these pages, we are a local business, too. Our employees live in every corner of Chesapeake country, and they’ve been hand-delivering your papers since the pandemic began—from the art director to our ad sales representatives to, yes, the company’s CEO. 

Bay Weekly is just one example among so many in the region who are “making it work.” You can meet many more in this issue. Please go pay them a visit: It’s a great time to support local!