In Chelsea, Maura Healey meets with Latina small business owners
CHELSEA — Attorney General Maura Healey thumbed through jeans at Chelsea Boutique before eyeing the thigh-high boots on display on the top shelf in the corner of the store. She turned to the owner, Maria Barriento,and asked if she’d had any trouble recently with the supply chain.
“Un poco,” Barrientos, 52, said — a little. Barrientos imports her products from Colombia, the country from which she emigrated nearly 20 years ago, she explained in Spanish. The items she sells — trendy tops, jewel-toned dresses, sparkly high heels, and ballet flats — have gotten more expensive, and the cost to ship them has doubled. The economy is slowing, so her customers aren’t buying as much as they used to. She’s relied on government assistance to keep her small business afloat.“That’s great,” Healey said during her first stop on a quick campaign tour through Chelsea on Monday morning, meeting with Latina small business owners.Five weeks before the election, the Democratic nominee for governor visited the city with Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.After visiting two Latina-owned businesses, Healey told reporters she empathized with the challenges facing small business owners in Massachusetts, who are still recovering from the financial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and may lack access to capital and financing.