This submission, from a Victoria retailer who chooses to remain anonymous, is part of our continuing series on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local businesses and organizations. “We have chosen to withhold putting our name to the piece so we can sidestep publicity good, bad or otherwise,” we were told.
“In the scheme of things we are not important enough to warrant notoriety. There are far more businesses suffering a far worse fate than ours. This is for them.”
Many thanks to publisher Dave Obee and his team for inviting local businesses to provide op-ed material during a time when their voices have been silenced by the pandemic.
Despite its own challenges in lost advertising revenues while ensuring their staff operate in a safe environment, the Times Colonist continues to produce a newspaper with extensive local coverage on the news of the day and keeps a living, breathing record of what affects us the most.
To begin with, the one thing we are not doing is lamenting about our business being closed to personal shoppers. Regret gets you nowhere.
We have a civic duty and responsibility to act accordingly and adhere to the recommendations of health authorities. However, we are taking this on like all other challenges and making our way back any which way we can, while still providing a safe and secure environment for our customers, staff and family.
Besides developing an online store of our own and communicating with our customers by phone and email, we have rebooted our newspaper ad campaign to reflect the new reality.
We continue to work out of the store daily, with one person manning the fort to field phone calls and package up online orders for delivery.
Surprisingly, the success of the online store has been better than expected, but nothing like the business we experienced when customers could shop in person.
The primary purpose initially was to keep in touch.
Now it is a more serious challenge and imperative to keep selling goods considering the length of time we might have to stay closed.
Other businesses have adapted in similar ways, while some have looked at this as a timeout. We are all taking stock, so to speak, and asking ourselves the tough questions.
Most would agree that a business like ours is not essential, but neither is the stocking up on pop and chips.
Today, despite dire warnings about the spread of the virus, every aisle in every grocery store is open for business.
With less than half the space devoted to groceries, Costco’s non-essential products are on full display and readily available.
Beyond the goods that we sell, all retail stores and services provide some semblance of an important contribution to the well-being of society.
Judging by some of the comments we have received from our customers as of late, you would think we were the only essential service, and for that we are truly grateful to be thought of in that way.
It gives us hope, but we remain steadfast in our resolve to remain closed until we are given the thumbs up.
Appealing to the good graces of your community is one thing, and a considerable number of people cherish their neighbourhood retailers, some so much that it would break their hearts to see them not return.
Others are indifferent to their plight, for in a crisis, it is every man and every woman for themselves.
Unlike our neighbours to the south, Canadians by and large have a greater sense of community and Greater Victoria, with its checkerboard number of municipalities, tops the list. The quantity and quality of local restaurants comes to mind as proof. It’s who we are, locals.
Today, hundreds of local retailers, restaurateurs and businesses of all kinds are faced with the perilous task of making their way through a minefield of challenges in order to survive.
For most, there is no pension plan to rely upon. For many, their life savings reside in the four walls of their establishment. (As an aside, why the federal government is not allowing small business owners, and for that matter everyone, the opportunity to withdraw from their RRSPs a nominal amount each month tax-free to help pay their bills is puzzling.)
When it’s fundraising time, small businesses are the ones we call upon for help in support of everything we hold dear to us.
Now it is time to step up and turn the tables. Use your search engines to find the products that you want, but stop short of placing that order with the Amazons of the world, and find a way to buy it locally, no matter what it takes.
Order takeout at your favourite local restaurant. Buy a gift card from local establishments and send it to your hairdresser or anyone who regularly provides you with a service as a retainer for having looked out for you over the years.
To say these are tough times for small business would be an understatement. How and when they return to normal is anyone’s guess. However, there are many things that we can do in the meantime to keep our friends and neighbours from fretting over the prospect of forfeiting their businesses and their livelihood.
