Local merchants hope places like Commercial St. will start filling up with shoppers as businesses kick-start their recovery during the busy retail season. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

critical time

‘I didn’t think it would be that bad:’ local businesses bank on big end to 2020

Nov 27, 2020 | 5:29 AM

NANAIMO — This year has unleashed endless stress upon local business operators, impacting the mental and physical health of employees and customers.

Retailers and service providers rely on cashing in during the holiday season in a regular year, but now they have to also make up for lost ground.

NanaimoNewsNOW reached out to six regional businesses to get a sense of how important this time of year is for their bottom line and what their future looks like.

Part one of this series, focusing on a regional and provincial look at the COVID-19 struggles of local business, can be found here.

Superette Foods

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It was a letter manager Shari Sorensen and ownership didn’t want to write.

Superette Foods, which has operated as a grocery store since 1903 on Albert St. at Milton St., informed customers in late October the business was essentially on life support.

Sales had dropped and costs increased, threatening the current 44-year ownership team to pull the plug on the beloved business.

“It was getting pretty dire for a while. It was very humbling because it’s not something anybody wants to do. It was either reach out or keep going down,” Sorensen said.

The call for help ignited a surge in interest in the store. More customers showed up, beyond the neighbourhood regulars, Sorensen said.

“Our community has really stepped up. It almost brings me to tears, it’s crazy,” Sorensen said as she became emotional.

While Nanaimo’s ultra competitive grocery market will always strain Superette Foods, Sorensen said their call for help illuminated how important the business is to the local neighbourhood.

Sorensen and other staff are receiving mixed reactions for a strict cap on how many shoppers can fill their baskets at one time.

“Only allowing three people in has posed a bit of a challenge. Some people don’t like to wait to go in and other people chat in line and get to know their neighbour.”

Sorensen said an online shopping option could be useful for Superette Foods, but only if it’s user friendly.

The store delivers groceries via phone orders.

With continued support, Sorensen said they’ll be able to continue operating.

Oh Happy Bake

Sales dropped by roughly 75 per cent for the north Nanaimo home-based bakery when Christmas events and markets evaporated off the schedule.

“I didn’t think it would be that bad,” owner Helga Lange said of the hit she and her mother took at the start of the pandemic.

Pre-orders and boosting its social presence are now the focus of Oh Happy Bake.

“We’ve definitely seen new customer groups that we’re pretty sure came through that social media world. It’s nice to see younger people interested in ordering.”

Lange noticed more customers recently mentioning to them the importance of buying local.

She said thankfully their seven-year-old venture is a side business which will be able to weather the COVID-19 storm.

Culture Craze

Lisa Hayward, owner of the body jewelry and accessories retailer based in Nanaimo at Woodgrove Centre, thought she’d have to close all her stores between B.C. and Manitoba when the pandemic hit.

“In March I thought we were done,” she said.

Hayward said sales company-wide rebounded in recent months but she’s concerned about further restrictions.

“Having another lockdown would be so difficult for us to get through, I don’t know if we could,” Hayward said.

Online sales have increased substantially as more attention is devoted to that side of Hayward’s business, however online shopping represents less than 10 per cent of overall sales.

She conceded Amazon has had “a huge impact on our business.”

McLean’s Specialty Foods

The nearly 30-year-old special foods store based in the Old City Quarter was substantially impacted by reducing the number of customers allowed in the store.

Co-owner Erik McLean said having only six people allowed in their Fitzwilliam St. business at a time is problematic, on top of sharp revenue drops this year.

“The main challenge is just trying to get everybody served. We’re selling lots of product because it’s Christmas time…but people are fed up with this whole thing.”

McLean said they can survive the COVID-19 pandemic with their solid customer base and an increase in younger shoppers to the store.

He admitted their website was ignored for too long but he hoped to establish a user-friendly online buying option in the future.

“I can see that being a big part of the business, but I tend to move very slowly and deliberately,” McLean said with a chuckle, who noted they do take phone orders.

Carlos O’Bryan’s

The restaurant/pub Carlos O’Bryans turned to delivery services for the first time when mass closures were implemented in March.

Elaine Hosak-Nelson, owner/operator of the Stewart Ave. business, said staff in need of work were redeployed to deliver food to help absorb some of their losses.

Business has since picked up once Hosak-Nelson was able to open their doors again, but on a limited scale with only small groups of diners and no lucrative parties.

Hosak-Nelson said parties ranging from 50 to 80 people nearly nightly throughout November and December are their trademark.

“Unfortunately that’s just not going to happen this year and we support that.”

She said it has been difficult drastically cutting back staff hours since many are students needing the extra cash.

A makeshift patio was built in their parking lot underneath tents outfitted with fire pits and heaters.

That 50’s Barbershop

2020 is the hardest year for Dave Lawrence at his Victoria Cres. barbershop, even without COVID-19. He dealt with a damaging break-in which hobbled his business right before the pandemic turned life upside down.

The mandated shut down then kept his doors locked for two-and-a-half months.

He’s now scrambling to pay his bills. New safety rules mean he can only serve 13 customers a day, compared to as many as 40 pre-pandemic.

Lawrence has gotten creative by making concrete planters and candles with his wife and selling the them online and in his shop.

“Luckily that has taken off, we’re selling quite a few of those. That’s really one of the things keeping us going because its just so difficult right now.”

Lawrence believed his business will squeak by and survive COVID-19, but said it will be a constant struggle with his many elderly customers afraid to leave the house.

“The psychological damage it’s causing people is really frightening,” Lawrence said. “It’s one of the reasons I’m why I’m not that busy, my older clientele is staying away.”

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