Owner Ben Minett talks about diversifying products and offering alternatives to in-store shopping to help alleviate the pressures of COVID-19
On Jan. 5, the Ontario government returned to a modified Step Two of its Roadmap to Reopen. Capacity restrictions and other social-distancing measures were once again placed on indoor businesses in the hopes of slowing down Omicron, the newest variant of the COVID-19 virus.
The highly contagious Omicron variant poses a challenge to Ontario communities, and Premier Doug Ford stated that the transition back into Step Two would give the province “more opportunities to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians.” The recently-revisited Step Two measures were put in effect until Jan. 26, but were subject to change based on any new public health developments.
The measures included a 50 per cent capacity limit placed on all indoor retail settings. Additionally, businesses were required to ask employees to work remotely whenever possible. Indoor event spaces were asked to close completely, and a pause was placed on indoor dining. Finally, all indoor concert venues, theatres, and cinemas were asked to temporarily cease operations.
Small businesses all over Ontario have been impacted by these ongoing restrictions and closures. Ben Minett, owner of The Bookshelf, feels lucky that he has been able to operate parts of his business during the pandemic.
The Bookshelf is a bookstore, restaurant, and cinema. Since opening in 1973, it has become a staple downtown spot for many in the Guelph community.
Minett told The Ontarion that the bookstore portion of his establishment has carried the business through these challenging times. However, he also says that running The Bookshelf has gotten progressively more challenging the longer the pandemic lasts. Closing the cinema and restaurant again in January was frustrating, but he understands why they needed to do so.
In order to continue promoting sales, The Bookshelf team has been diversifying their products as all of the staff contribute to the store’s curation.
Their unique selection includes books by Guelph-based authors, as well as many local-interest titles such as regional hiking guides.
“We have also tried our best to focus our titles on some of the ideas that are driving our current social reality,” Minett said.
These titles include, but are not limited to: climate change, racial justice, gender politics, post-capitalist ideology, epidemiology, and educational reform.
Additionally, The Bookshelf also sells wine from Canadian, Italian, and French sources, and stocks many game and puzzle products.
The Bookshelf instituted its first COVID-19 plan in March of 2020, and since then Minett and his staff have continued to make alterations to the store to ensure the safety of their customers. With the evolving changes in Public Health policies, Minett notes that The Bookshelf team has been doing all they can to make their store a safe place.
“We have installed MERV-13 air filters throughout the building, and all of our staff are vaccinated,” he said.
The store also offers free same-day delivery in Guelph, as well as curbside pick up, in an effort to be as accommodating as possible to customers. Minett says that although it was expensive for them to deliver instock items, they viewed the extra costs as the reality of doing business during the pandemic.
“It has made it possible to compete with Amazon, who deprioritized books during the pandemic,” he said.
Some Guelphites have turned to The Bookshelf to fulfill their shopping needs rather than online giants such as Amazon. Customers have found that doing business with a local retailer has its perks during a pandemic—namely, quicker and friendlier delivery service.
“Many customers [have] stated that we were faster than Amazon,” Minett said.
However, competing with major retailers still has been far from easy for The Bookshelf, as well as for many other smaller companies.
“It’s been discouraging to see corporations thrive, while small businesses bear the brunt of pandemic-related economic loss,” Minett said. He feels that more needs to be done to support these businesses, especially in the industries that have been hit the hardest by COVID lockdowns,
such as food services.
According to Statistics Canada, “small businesses make up 98% of all employer business in Canada.” As of 2021, roughly one third of small businesses with 1 to 100 employees were expected to see a decrease in sales and profitability.
To help combat this, Ontario developed a small business relief grant in January 2022, which offers $10,000 to all businesses that were forced to close due to the recent public health guidelines. Additionally, a cost rebate program has been developed that will support small businesses by paying a portion of their property tax and energy costs. Both this program and the grant need to be approved via application. Eligible businesses include: restaurant and bars, performing arts and cinemas, museums, meeting or event spaces, and more.
Minett notes that The Bookshelf has utilized the Ontario COVID-19 small business support grant, and the cost rebate program. These grants, Minett states, have been very helpful within his business. However he still feels that more help needs to be given to those in the customer service industry.
“We need to try our best on an individual, municipal, provincial and federal level to help,” he said.
Currently, The Bookshelf employs 10 staff members, but before the pandemic they employed 30. Minett mentions that the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was also very helpful in 2020.
“We would like to see something similar in 2022 to help us compensate staff for hours lost to isolating and [dealing with] symptoms,” he said.
He also says that “the federal and provincial governments could have made different decisions that could have helped [his business] more.” However, he does not blame government officials for not being able to operate his business at full capacity; he blames COVID-19.
As Canada enters year three of dealing with COVID-19, Minett feels that “the pandemic has taken away many of the things that inspire people and give them a sense of cultural connectivity.”
However, he is nonetheless appreciative of the community that continues to support The Bookshelf, and he hopes that this feeling of connectivity can be brought back to his store and to the Guelph community in the near future.
A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 192.2 on Jan. 27, 2022.
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