STILL STRUGGLING Small businesses changed forever by COVID

Kyle Jamieson wants people to understand that every industry will recover from COVID at a different pace. Some may never completely recover, while others may look totally different.

The dry cleaning industry is one of these businesses.

Jamieson took over the management and ownership of Deluxe Dry Cleaners from his parents on Jan. 1, 2020 - poor timing with the start of a global pandemic right around the corner. The business headquarters are in Burnside, N.S. with four other locations around the Halifax Regional Municipality, including one, until recently, on Woodlawn Road in Dartmouth.

This last location was a victim of COVID. Jamieson said they couldn't renew the building's lease with so much uncertainty about the future of the dry cleaning industry. This was not an easy decision, he says, as the business had a presence in the area for over 60 years.

“COVID has completely changed the retail dry cleaning industry, with most dry cleaners across Canada at any given point during peak COVID down 70 to 80 per cent in sales,” says Jamieson.

The primary reason?

People are not getting dressed up to go to work anymore, especially as many are working from home. Prior to COVID, work-related attire comprised approximately 70 per cent of their business, Jamieson says.

Employees might wear the odd shirt for a video conference call but not nearly a similar amount of clothing as they used to wear, he says. If someone wears it for a short call, they can then wear it multiple times before cleaning, as opposed to wearing it all day at work and having it cleaned afterward, he says.

Jamieson says for those at work, the dress code has also changed. For example, after visiting one lawyer's office for pick up and delivery, he was told that the lawyers there could wear jeans and a polo shirt to work during COVID as opposed to a suit.

Fewer events, weddings Jamieson says the decline in events has also hurt the business.

“Last year, we saw the lowest amount of wedding dresses I have personally seen in our business. This year has been way better for wedding attire but restrictions on the amount of people who can attend weddings still hurts,” he says.

A person who had an indoor wedding with 25 people or an outdoor wedding with 50 people during COVID might have had 100 to 150 guests under normal circumstances. That's a big difference in the number of people who would wear wedding appropriate clothing. Many others have skipped a formal wedding and just gone to the courthouse to get married because they don't want to wait anymore. Although he understands, Jamieson says it is a complete loss for the business.

A third component of their business was cleaning garments after a house fire or flood. The good news is that these catastrophic events were reduced during COVID because people were home and could notice something was wrong earlier. The bad news is that it was another hit to the dry cleaning industry, says Jamieson.

Pivoting business plans

The only way to survive, he says, was by slowing services. Most dry cleaners used to offer same-day services but are now offering next-day or two-tothree-day services. Instead of running their machines five times a week, they are down to three.

Jamieson has also increased the drop-off and pick-up service, which although is more costly for them was the only way to retain good clients. They also provided laundry services for people who were quarantining.

Jamieson also had to reduce and change hours and close one of his locations. Then, there are the layoffs.

“Laying off 17 people in a single day was the worst day of my career,” he says.

Business is slowly starting to come back, says Jamieson. Their best month since the start of COVID was in July 2020, but that was still down 50 per cent in retail sales compared to July 2019. They have increased staffing to 10, but still a far cry from the 22 employees prior to COVID.

Unfortunately, says Jamieson, as everything is slowly sorting out, it is hard to get clients to understand why you are still running limited hours and have daily closures.

"Not every business or industry is reopening at the same rate," he says.

“Just because one store you frequent is back to running 100 per cent doesn't mean others will. For dry cleaning specifically, we will be one of the last industries to fully recover and we probably won't ever get back to where we were."

Jamieson hopes people will support the industry and remember that dry cleaners can clean more than just dry-cleanonly items. They will clean anything they feel professionally and comfortably can be cleaned, including items listed as do not dry clean.

Office Supply Businesses Justin Horvath is a business development consultant with Dicks and Company Basics, a Newfoundland office supply company with locations in St. John's, Carbonear, Grand Fallswindsor and Corner Brook.

When it comes to office supplies and needs, COVID brought a dramatic shift.

Technology requests like webcams, headsets and small printers became some of their hottest items overnight, while more common office items dropped dramatically. There soon became worldwide shortages for those hot items as supply became an obstacle.

Most technology manufacturers forecast sales well into the future based on market trends and previous year's sales, explains Horvath. Previously, small, single-user printers were in a downward trend, moving towards larger, centralized multifunction machines. Then, suddenly, everyone needed a smaller printer. The industry wasn't ready for that, and stock quickly became depleted.

Office furniture also experienced a transition, going from traditional cubicles and L-shaped desks to small single desks and chairs to match home decor, he says.

Horvath says their largest accounts were down, with sales dropping by 50 per cent during some parts of the pandemic.

“Our client demographic has changed forever,” says Horvath.

During COVID, Horvath says they catered to homeschoolers' needs and put together back-to-school packages of school supplies for parents before school began this month.

Move to online

Product shift and availability wasn't the only challenge, says Horvath.

Online sales doubled and it was clear this trend was going to be the new normal. Then, there was shipping, which needed to be reworked to take home delivery into consideration.

Horvath says Dicks and Company Basics have done what was necessary to survive a global pandemic. They've had previous experience - having been in business for 181 years, the business also survived the Spanish Flu of 1918.

“We again learned to work with our community and clients to get through this together,” he says.

Other Industries

Richard May, executive director of the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) in the Nortip office, based in the Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula, says many other industries are still having difficulties because of COVID.

Restaurants are seeing a decline as more people are eating at home because they now have time to cook. For other businesses, the higher cost of freight and a general increase in inventory costs - particularly paper and furniture - are pricing them out of some lines.

Jamieson leaves people with an important reminder: until events have zero restrictions and people are back to work full time, please be kind and understanding with your local small businesses.

Go online: Learn more at http://www.deluxedrycleaners.ca/

https://dacnl.com/