Bradrord business owner Kimberly Harvey is upset about the Ford government's plan to slowly re-open businesses and other public facilities over the next three months; a plan that, for Harvey, does not make sense.
“The lockdown has been on for 48 days now. That means we have to wait almost another full lockdown to re-open,” Harvey posted on Facebook. According to Ford’s plan retail can open at 15 per cent capacity during Stage 1, on or around June 14.
Harvey owns ‘My Lil’ Gem’ jewellery store located in the Upper Canada Mall, and recently opened a second location in the Georgian Mall on April 1.
But Harvey says the limitations placed on retail in the re-opening stages are going to continue to hurt her sales at both locations.
“It’s bloody amazing how the government can spin it to make you think it’s (the lockdown) almost over! But really, we’re only in the middle of it… If everything goes perfectly," she said.
Harvey explains that once businesses are allowed to re-open, the capacity limits won't cover payroll, let alone rent or any real sales.
“It’s just not possible, especially when most stores need double the staff they would normally need to do crowd control,” shares Harvey. “[This causes] payroll to be twice what it should be for a store who would normally have one staff member working on an average day like my stores.”
Harvey has had a wild Covid-ride with her business since the pandemic began. From losing all her booked vendor shows to constantly having to shut her doors at the Upper Canada Mall.
“We were locked down after only eight days of being in the Georgian mall and we lost Boxing Day sales,” shares Harvey, adding that she chose to open a second location because of the added advantages of having built-in foot traffic in a different region, but also to create more jobs for those struggling during the pandemic. "The provincial government said many times over and over they wanted the winter lockdown to be the last lockdown… I felt betrayed by our government after them repeatedly promising they would never lock us down again.”
Harvey states she has two stores worth of staff who are still unemployed and she only had a ‘few hours notice’ to tell let them know it was their last day for a while when the third lockdown hit.
“The final time leading up to the third lockdown, we had a greatly reduced capacity of 25 per cent and with that, you were always afraid of getting fines [so] you [had to] keep 100 per cent control of the people in your store,” she said.
Harvey notes that people will only wait for so long in a line-up to enter a store, and will just walk to away to go into a larger store that has more capacity.
“It broke my heart having to watch customers walk away, and at that point we were losing about $500 a day,” she shared. “It actually made more sense for us to be closed moving into lockdown number three… because you can get grants towards rent and utilities when you’re closed. But that means your staff are all jobless, again – it’s crushing to have to see your staff unemployed.”
Over the past year, Harvey has pivoted in different ways to sustain her businesses, including opening a temporary kiosk at the Georgian Mall during the last two weeks of Christmas to boost her sales after her store in the Upper Canada Mall was closed in York Region.
“I even opened a temporary location in the 400 flea market for the last month and a bit of Christmas to try and have additional places to be ‘found’, in case all malls were closed,” she said.
Harvey tried to support other small business who were struggling during the pandemic. She held internal promotions like a collaborative ‘Black Friday’ sale where local businesses created 100 gift bags for customers.
“We had a few other local businesses’ items in our store at Christmas [time] of handmade things like Christmas decorations, wooden signs, and macrame,” Harvey said.
Harvey applied for as many grants and loans as she could get her hands on to keep her business afloat. She secured the $40K loan and the small business grants of $20K in total. She also received a small grant from Nottawasaga Futures, and yet continues to collect CRB (Canada Recovery Benefit) to make ends meet.
“I don’t think I would have made it if the Nottawasaga Futures program didn’t work out,” she admits. “It took many tries of applying to get approval for any of the government supports, like the $40K loan. I didn’t get that until 2021. So, everything leading up to then was done with my life savings and maxing out all my credit and borrowing money from family.”
Harvey explains there were ‘cracks’ in the system she kept falling through when it came to applying for loans and grants to keep her stores running. She shares that her 2020 taxes were over $32K in losses.
“They kept declining me because they thought I was opening a new business despite having been a completely legit business with all of my business numbers and tax numbers for many years before,” she said, adding she was trying to ‘pivot’ from vendor shows to a retail store. “It’s not just me, many businesses have been on a huge rollercoaster this last year and a half, and we have taken on tons of debt that will be with us for years just to stay open.”
She adds, “most businesses are afraid to talk about the reality of these lockdowns because we get labelled ‘grandma killers’ or ‘anti-maskers/vaxxers’… I got into so many fights with people who said we should be grateful to be open, even at 15 per cent capacity - they don’t have the slightest clue.”
