There isn’t much to love about the pandemic, but local businesses are not letting it stop them from still making Valentine's Day special.
This year many have pivoted to options like themed take out menus or pre-made gift baskets, aimed at maintaining some business during tumultuous times.
Bruce Merritt, the owner of Candies of Merritt, says he doesn’t know how sales will go for Valentine’s Day since they won’t be open on Sunday.
“We’re strictly doing curbside or delivery or shipping,” says Merritt, whose store has been in Guelph almost 50 years. “The orders are starting to come in, but we don’t know really what’s going to happen,”
This year for the holiday, they also started offering gift baskets after seeing a rise in sales the past few years. With customers interested in them during the pandemic, Merritt says it’s something they plan on continuing to offer.
“They seem to like them,” says Merritt about customer reactions to the gift baskets, “They like the idea that they can email and say, ‘I want one.’
“It’s very positive for ease, this is what I want and this is what I get.”
The longstanding chocolate shop wasn't previously set up for online sales, but switched to doing so. Merritt says it has been going fairly smooth with customers being really supportive.
“It’s really interesting, you have no idea from one day to the next what the day’s going to be like,” he explains.
“Our website has increased quite dramatically over the last few months,” says Ted Drew-Smith, the co-owner of Reid’s Candy and Nut Shop, another chocolate store in Guelph, “We’ve also seen more people who are interested in shopping local and supporting the local businesses.”
In 2020, Reid’s saw a boost in online sales after October, but experienced issues keeping up with the demand in December. For Valentine’s Day, Drew-Smith says they are trying to be more optimistic as sales were better than anticipated in January.
“I think we’ll be down a little bit, but if you had asked me this two weeks ago, I would’ve said we would have been down a lot,” says Drew-Smith, “Things have really changed over the past couple of weeks.
"We’re moving ahead assuming our sales are going to be similar or the same, and I’ll be happy if we get close to that.”
Being a manufacturer, he explains they had problems with securing suppliers in the pandemic for certain ingredients, impacting their ability to fulfill orders.
“Normally we go through one supplier for certain items,” Drew-Smith explains, “They were taking two to three months, so we would have to go out and source from other suppliers.”
“Luckily we were able to pull it off, or else it would’ve been disastrous.”
Issues with securing supplies for Valentine’s Day has been noted in other industries, especially within the flower industry.
Alexandra Highet, the founder and creative director of Forever Wildfield, said her business has met challenges securing products now that they are out of the local growing season, resulting in the need to place orders months in advance.
“Even the materials that we use to design with it’s tricky getting stuff because there’s such a delay,” she says.
Ken Dool, owner of Robinson’s Flowers, also agrees. He explains some flowers his customers want are only available in other countries.
“With exotic flowers, we’re not seeing any right now because you can’t get enough across the border,” he says.
Despite this, flower stores saw a rise in sales this past year. Many people have sent flowers when they were not able to visit loved ones, or see family in long term care homes.
“People can’t gather, can’t be together, so sending flowers is a nice way to let people know you’re thinking about them,” says Highet.
With Valentine’s Day approaching, sales for flowers are expected to bloom.
“Sales wise, our phone’s been busier and our computer’s been busier, we’ve had to add more staff and overall just busier,” says Dool who now has five full-time and four part-time staff working for him. “We’re very, very fortunate.”
For the restaurant and hospitality industry, many would normally be busy on Valentine’s Day. With indoor dining not an option right now, many are offering takeout menus with holiday specials.
Alex Tami, owner and operator of Sugo On Surrey, and Scott Yates, the owner of Chef Scotty Cooks, have different perspectives on how Valentine’s Day will go this year for their businesses by offering takeout menus.
“There’s a different mindset to dining in as opposed to getting takeout,” says Tami, who only has four staff now compared to 26 last year. “I feel like most people have a price point in their head for certain dishes and we’re on the pricier end of things.
“We don’t really want to go off of the way we do things, we want to offer people local, fresh products and they are in turn a little more expensive.”
He mentions being able to offer these services is important to staying relevant to customers. Sugo gets a lot of regular customers doing takeout orders and sold out during New Year's Eve.
“I feel like we’ll get a flood of calls the next Friday and Saturday, and hopefully do a bit better,” says Tami about Valentine's Day, “But I don’t see us selling out like we did for New Year’s Eve.”
With his catering business, Yates has actually been able to increase his customer base by offering takeout options and cooking classes. Prior to this year, he didn’t offer very many services for Valentine’s Day.
“What I would normally do is people would reach out to me and want to do personal catering,” he explains, “So I would only be able to serve that group of people.
“For me, to be able to reach out to more people and offer something they may enjoy ... I’ve really enjoyed being able to service more people.”
As Valentine’s Day comes and goes, many businesses have said they are rolling with the punches and continuing to adapt as the pandemic drags on.
“You’ve just got to take it as it goes,” says Merritt, “Everyone’s in the same boat.”
