CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — New insights from the DoorDash State of Local Commerce report show across the top 100 cities encouraging signs that everyday life is stabilizing, from easing grocery prices to local restaurants that continue to thrive despite a year of economic uncertainty.
The American economy today is unfolding not just on Wall Street, but on Main Street and around the kitchen table.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Jess Lachs, Chief Analytics Officer for DoorDash, about the latest reports.
FHO Economic Impact of Small Businesses segment 12.20.25
“It’s a testament to the hard work of business owners across the country and in Chattanooga to keep their doors open, we created the restaurant resilience rate, which measures the share of restaurants that remain open year over year, and despite economic ebbs and flows, 93% of local restaurants on the DoorDash platform as of September 2024 remain Open a year later, and Midwestern cities like Lincoln Nebraska are Topping our list, but highly resilient cities span the country from California to the East Coast, said Jess Lachs, Chief Analytics Officer for DoorDash.”
Here in Chattanooga, we witnessed the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses. Despite the pandemic, downtown revitalization efforts continued through public-private partnerships.
The Greater Chattanooga Economic Partnership reported 129 projects completed between 2020 and 2024, with $4.8 billion in investment and 11,836 jobs created across the region.
Another aspect of the local commerce report touches on seeing an uptick in the number of lunch orders across commercial addresses vs residential areas.
“One of the most interesting points that we looked at was the rate of change for weekday lunch orders that were going to commercial addresses as compared to residential addresses. And what we’re seeing is that downtown business orders are up two and a half percent year over year nationally, and more than half of the 100 largest cities were showing downtown recovery, said Jess Lachs, Chief Analytics Officer for DoorDash.”
With the economic uncertainty across various cities during the pandemic, the question of how small businesses can thrive became top of mind.
Specifically, Hamilton County was one of six large counties in Tennessee given the authority to make its own reopening decisions.
Restrictions were gradually lifted, allowing for 50% capacity dining, with ongoing social distancing and safety guidelines.