SURREY, B.C. -- Small businesses have a taken a huge hit since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Many independent stores have had to lay off employees or close their doors temporarily. Experts say if this trend continues, some shops could be gone for good.
Half of the country’s small businesses have already seen a major drop in sales, according to a new survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
“We did find that one in four small businesses would not be survive more than a month if their sales were to decrease by 50 per cent,” said Muriel Protzer of the CFIB.
The report found that independent stores in British Columbia have lost an average of $74,000 since the pandemic began.
“The word fear comes to mind. We’re all nervous. There’s so many unknown things happening in the world. It’s definitely slowed down, “ said Annie Christiaens, owner of “The Heart”, a small retail store in Cloverdale.
Christiaens sells locally made Canadian products and has noticed a decline in foot traffic in her store in recent weeks.
“We need to be able to pay our bills. We pay our bills and employee salaries with our shoppers. We don’t have large profit margins like a lot of stores do,” Christiaens told CTV News.
Her store has now brought in additional measures to keep its staff and customers safe.
“We are wiping and cleaning between every customer that visits our store. We’re asking customers to pay with plastic if they can right now. We’re really pushing our online sales and we have implemented a curb-side pickup option,” Christiaens explained.
Other stores have been forced to take more drastic actions.
“I unfortunately had to make the decision this morning to lay off my staff just because I don’t want to have to wait until whatever the next stage is and then everyone is applying for EI,” said Megan Nakazawa, owner of the Local Space shop in Langley.
Nakazawa is now running the shop alone with extra sanitary measures in place. She said very few customers are stopping by now with the majority of sales being made online.
“Online orders, we don’t make as much money off of it because of processing rates and we also have to cover the shipping fees. We’re trying to encourage people to do the social distancing thing,” said Nakazawa.
She said now is more vital than ever to shop local.
“Supporting local is so important at this time. We want all these stores to be open after whatever comes next,” she said. Christiaens said shopping local ensures that you’re supporting local families and the local economy.
“I understand that people aren’t always in the financial means to support local, our prices can be higher, but they aren’t always. Do your homework.”
But she said there are other ways to contribute to their success.
“You can talk about us online, you can share our posts,” she explained.
