Howard Sefton, who operates Capt. Howard’s Bait and Tackle, stands with his wife Robin, in front of their home next to his Philadelphia Avenue business. Sefton is optimistic about Egg Harbor City business, and says he likes what he sees. EGG HARBOR CITY - The owner of a business that’s a Philadelphia Avenue mainstay is leading a charge to promote the city’s shopping center and wants merchants to join in.

Howard Sefton of Capt. Howard’s Bait and Tackle, which has operated at 326 Philadelphia Ave. for 15 years, wants area businesses to use their websites to promote each other.

“A lot of the businesses in this area, draw from outside of Egg Harbor City, ” he said. “I get customers from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and a guy from North Carolina, called ‘Gator.’”

They found Sefton through the internet, he said, and Sefton has offered to use his website, captainhowards.com, to help direct his customers to other businesses in the city as well

“If everybody advertises each others’ business, then we all get exposure,” Sefton said.

Everybody wins is how Sefton sees it.

Recently Sefton hired Charlie Miller of Cumberland County to revamp his website to a user-friendly format for about $300.

“If a customer comes in with a fish he caught,” Sefton said, “I can take a picture and put it on my website in three minutes.”

And Sefton, 53, doesn’t consider himself a computer guru.

When he graduated from Queen Elizabeth’s School in 1972 in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, “We had one computer and it was sealed in a vault.”

Sefton’s newfound computer prowess gave him an idea. He wondered if all of the city’s businesses banded together to help promote each other, wouldn’t they all benefit?

For example, Sefton said, if he gets 10 hits a day and they link to 30 other businesses, “we could get 300 hits a day. For about $10 to get a domain name, it’s really inexpensive.”

But there is a catch, he said.

“Everybody has got to get on board,” he said.

When they do, Sefton and his associates will have completed a virtual Egg Harbor City shopping mall with online connections to area merchants.

So far, Sefton has placed interior and exterior photos of 20 Egg Harbor City businesses and organizations on his website along with their names, locations and phone numbers.

And the owners of Tap It in the 100 block have decided to hook up with his business link program as well.

Sefton says his idea will help his customers decide to make multiple stops in Egg Harbor City and behave much like the way shoppers do when they make several stops at a mall or shopping plaza.

“A woman who is shopping at Sensational Seconds,” he said, “may decide to stop over a Capt. Howard’s. You’d be surprised at how many people fish.”

Or one of his customers may decide to grab a pizza or a submarine sandwich in town, he said. Maybe they will stop at Lynkris Hardware?

But there’s one difference between small town stores and the malls, Sefton said.

Small town America stores such as Capt. Howard’s can survive because the owners-operators provide in-depth knowledge that you may not find from chain store minimum-wage, part-time employees.

“It’s all about personal service,” Sefton said.

Several years ago, a man stopped in to Capt. Howard’s and said, “I’ve never caught a striper,” Sefton said.

Soon Sefton set the wanna-be striper master with the correct lures and sent him to a location along the Mullica River in the nearby Sweetwater section of Mullica Township.

“He came back with a 35-pound striper,” Sefton said. “He was happy.”

And so was Sefton.

Egg Harbor City provides a wonderful place to do business, Sefton said, especially for merchants who are just starting out.

One of the reasons is the inexpensive rent found in Egg Harbor City, Sefton said.

He estimates the rent for a 1,000-square-foot business in Egg Harbor City is about one-quarter or less of what the rent could be in some larger, high volume areas such as in Egg Harbor Township.

“These people who are starting out get a rent that they can’t afford and soon they are out of business,” he said.

Sefton said he has heard of businesses that are $200,000 to $300,000 back in rent.

But not in Egg Harbor City where rents remain affordable, he said.

Recently, Johnny D’s Sub Shop opened in the 200 block of Philadelphia Avenue near where Filling Marble and Tile opened in the 100 block a few months earlier.

“A bakery and a hairdresser are going to open up soon,” Sefton said. “That gives us four new businesses in the past year.”

All it takes is a few more and Egg Harbor City will not be looking as empty, he said.

Sefton also appreciates the work the city has performed to put down new sidewalks and lights down Philadelphia Avenue.

“It’s so bright at night,” he said. “It is really beautiful.”

And the outlook for Egg Harbor City could be even brighter, Sefton said.