With most retail spaces shuttered due to COVID-19, London Drugs is offering up shelf space for local small businesses. The company says it will be turning some of its centre aisles into ‘Local Central’ spaces to sell products such as coffee, honey and apparel from Calgary-area businesses.
It comes as a new report from Statistics Canada shows 57 per cent of Alberta businesses have had revenue drop by at least 20 per cent since March. Nearly a third of businesses in the country have seen revenue plummet by more than 40 per cent, the survey found.
“This is a really hard time for many small businesses, and we are in a unique position in these challenging times where we can really help out,” said Clint Mahlman with London Drugs.
StatsCan surveyed more than 12,600 businesses across Canada and found one in five have had to lay off employees.
Most small businesses in Calgary have had to transition to delivery or curb side pickup options in order to keep money coming in and staff employed..
Chris Meginbir with Devil’s Head Coffee says he’s been able to keep the company’s three employees in a job and they now make around 100 small deliveries every week. But gone is the revenue his company used to make through events and orders from restaurants, cafes and hotels.
“We have a mobile coffee cart we bring to different events and we’ve taken about a 100 per cent loss on that,” said Meginbir, “all of our wholesale has completely dried up as well. So it’s been a major shift.”
But Meginbir said he’s fortunate that his company is able to still accept online orders.
“The community has really stepped up to support us, being a small business and local,” he said.
London Drugs is accepting online applications for its ‘Local Central’ program for small businesses across Western Canada.
