Businesses brace for fallout

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2020 (1933 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When asked why Broadway barbershop Hunter & Gunn closed weeks before the first mandated lockdown in March, owner Jeremy Regan jokes it was partially his “Catholic guilt” that inspired the decision.

The shop had to close for a second time after code-red restrictions took effect at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 12. At Hunter & Gunn, Regan said, a barber cut hair until minutes before the deadline. Revenue, which had been about 70 per cent of normal, dropped back down to zero again.

“I’m trying to use a little humour with it, and keep busy and be positive, but it’s sad, and it’s hard,” he said. “It affects our life a lot. That’s the only thing that we have.”

Hunter & Gunn had been a beacon of success for more than eight years before COVID-19 hit the province. Even when the shop was able to reopen in May, there were always open appointments.

“A lot of people aren’t going downtown. A lot of people aren’t getting their hair cut as much. No weddings, no grads, nothing,” he said.

During the last eight months, Regan guesses they made about 50 per cent less than they did during the same period in 2019.

He has spent much of that eight months thinking about the provincial government’s response to the pandemic, including what it could have done differently.

While he stressed he supports lockdown measures to keep the public safe, he said many of the province’s financial support plans were either ill-conceived or not feasible in relation to federal support options. He said it was a “frustrating” process for him to deal with while facing the closure of his business and he felt the fact that Hunter & Gunn had instated a mask mandate before the province did indicates a lack of foresight.

“From provincial grants, to mask wearing, to rules within barbershops that were unfair — none of it had foresight. All of it was in hindsight,” he said.

At this point, whether or not Hunter and Gunn survives COVID-19 depends on the length of the lockdown.

“I’m trying to keep a good attitude,” Regan said.

Chris Gama, Raya Konrad and Carolina Konrad, who co-own Clementine restaurant in the Exchange District, also believe the province hasn’t supported businesses throughout their trials and tribulations of the pandemic.

“Honestly, we don’t really look to the province for anything as far as guidelines, we’ve just kind of determined it on our own,” Gama said.

The brunch spot has had to adapt more than once in the last eight months. It closed to the public in mid-March and slowly reopened in June, and shut down dine-in service on Oct. 30. Its attempt to provide bottled cocktails with take-out and delivery orders was quickly shut down by the province in early November.

“It’s been a really slow roller-coaster, ups and downs, but everything is happening kind of slowly,” Gama said.

Despite that, the owners said they feel “fortunate” for relatively high take-out and delivery demand from customers, and said the last eight months had averaged around a 50 per cent drop in revenue.

“We’ve had a lot of time to build a really good track record and a really good loyal customer base,” Raya Konrad said. “There are other restaurants that don’t have that.”

Gama said he felt the restaurant industry had become a scapegoat for the province, and that the messaging about bars and restaurants as a prominent factor of COVID-19’s spread didn’t match up with lax enforcement of COVID-19 protocols and bylaws in bars and restaurants during the summer.

“We wish they would have mandated dining-in closures earlier so the numbers wouldn’t be so high now,” Raya Konrad said. “It feels like it’s just a long slow bleed at this point.”

The owners say they never had a single visit or phone call from provincial officials to follow up on COVID-19 restrictions, except a health inspector visited when they first reopened and a Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority inspector visited on Nov. 4.

“There’s absolutely no messaging as to what the restrictions are… we were still getting calls last week for dine-in because people didn’t realize restaurants were closed,” Gama said. “So I don’t think they’ve done a good job of informing the public of what the hell is going on.”

Regardless, its owners said Clementine has a fair shot of surviving the pandemic. Raya Konrad noted the “good reputation” of the restaurant had kept repeat customers coming back. They expect to struggle and have little follow-up from the province.

“One hundred per cent, we’re taking things into our own hands,” Gama said.

Unlike many local businesses in Winnipeg, Mauro Felicioni said his gardening supply store is having a banner year.

Ready Set Grow Hydroponics has sold gardening supplies for hydroponics – a style of horticulture in which plants are grown in water with nutrient solutions rather than soil – for more than 20 years. Business has increased 30 per cent this year compared with last year.

“From the (Manitoba Orchid Society), to the gardening clubs, to backyard growers and gardeners, as well as people with their medicinal (marijuana) licences are coming in,” Felicioni said.

Felicioni credits the hike in revenue to pandemic-induced buying. Winter months are usually busier than the summer because most gardeners have stocked up, but COVID-19 closures resulted in a sharp spike in business from people afraid the store would be forced to close and from budding hobbyists.

“People had a lot of spare time on their hands because their workplaces were shutting down… everyone’s at home. So what else is there to do but garden?” he said.

While business at the Henderson Highway store settled down by June, Ready Set Grow is in the middle of another jump in business just as code-red closures took effect. The business is deemed essential by the current public health order, which exempts those that provide “bedding plants, seeds and garden supplies” from closing.

Felicioni — who also owns Jeffrey’s Restaurant on Henderson Highway, which has had to close — believes the province’s decision to allow many businesses to remain open throughout the summer was premature.

“They should’ve kept tighter restrictions throughout the summer… it was just a free-for-all,” he said. “The business at our bar and restaurant (this summer) was the best summer we’ve had in 10 years.”

Regardless of the store’s good fortune, Felicioni said his business will likely change post-COVID. He believes the future is online shopping, despite the store currently operating mainly through in-person interactions. He’ll have to adapt to that.

“We’re a real unique business, so we’ve developed great clientele over the years,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_