Local business’s roll into ‘red control’ zone

Small business owners are grateful despite the rocky financial year caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Lockdown was lifted for most of the province this week besides four regions in the greater Toronto area. Windsor-Essex county made it into the “ red control zone”, leaving only Niagara Region left in lockdown according to the Ontario government website.

With some measures lifted, things are still less than normal for The Cook’s Shop Restaurant according to owner Spencer Dawson, who closed his restaurant completely for five months during the lockdown in March.

Dawson said they decided to open during the latest lockdown with hesitation because The Cook’s Shop is considered a fine-dining restaurant, fearing a takeout option could harm the restaurant’s reputation.

“The Cook Shop has been around 40 years and had never done takeout before.”

“Obviously it was different, however, during that time it gave us time to take a step back and re-evaluate what we were doing and came up with some new dishes,” said Dawson.

Grocery stores and pharmacies can now operate at 75 per cent of capacity while retailers can have higher capacity limits. All non- essential businesses are limited to 50 per cent capacity.

This lockdown did not leave Trish McDonald, owner of River Rock Pottery, discouraged. McDonald said she sells her products through the Urban Art Market in Walkerville and said that portion of her business had been affected by the pandemic as they had to shift to full online sales.

“We were lucky, the locals and the people around were really supportive. They did their research, reached out to us and the shopping was great. People looked local and shopped local,” said McDonald.

Porsche Wiebe, owner of Helen’s Beauty Bar, a nail salon located in Leamington, said her salon was not open for five months this year. Wiebe also said she was unable to receive government funding during either of the lockdowns.

“I am lucky my husband still works or else I would not be able to pay my bills,” said Wiebe.

On Feb. 26, WECHU indicated that Windsor-Essex would likely remain in red restriction for at least another week.