Owners of Bing’s Bistro, Crystal Alm (left) and Linda Alm (right) organizes their product displays
The constant updates and changes on COVID protocols continue to take a toll on many small town businesses.
The Town of Fort Macleod’s Chamber of Commerce President, Andrew Beausekom says that citizens’ lack of interest regarding COVID news updates plays a significant role in local small businesses struggles.
“The thread that we’re seeing is people, business owners, and even consumers are starting to tune out of the daily or weekly news updates to see what the new restrictions are and it’s a little confusing when you’re not actively following those news releases on what’s required, because that’s the only communication the province has with businesses,” says Beausekom.
With a community at just a little over fifty percent vaccination rate, the decrease in sales became more prominent and the rates of staying profitable became a lot more difficult for many business owners.
“I think there’s so many mixed messages because it’s not the business owner who’s setting the regulations, it’s the province and yet it’s the business owner who’s required to enforce and place those regulations, “explains Beausekom.
For small town businesses like Bing’s Bistro, the decrease of tourists and regulation changes has been two of the main challenges throughout the whole pandemic. Owner, Crystal Alm says that their current sales have decreased approximately thirty per cent in comparison to early 2019, when they officially opened.
“Bing’s Bistro relies on a lot of tourist traffic, which has gone down a whole bunch, and we sell a lot of baking’s at markets and the market traffic has gone down a whole bunch, especially with only thirty per cent capacity,” says Alm
The town of Fort Macleod’s Chamber of Commerce are currently emphasizing on the ‘shop local’ drive, in order to strengthen and try to keep as many businesses as stable as possible.
According to Alberta’s Restriction and Exemption Program, in scope businesses, entities, and events must require proof of vaccination or negative results, plus mandatory masking to continue operating as usual. Financial support is also available to help offset costs of implementing the program.
More information and updates regarding regulation changes can be found at the government of Alberta website.
