“It was greatly appreciated”: Customers clear out construction zone bakery
Shoppers with a sweet tooth completely sold out a small town bakery in the Town of Essex recently, while streetscape construction continues in front of the Essex Centre store.
Staff at The Little House of Cupcakes and More on Talbot Street said there was no sugar-coating concern when making a Facebook post last week reminding customers they were still open, less than one month after roadwork began.
“It’s hard with the roads being torn up and the sidewalks are next,” said owner Heather Richardson. “We don’t see a lot of foot traffic like we normally do.”
Richardson wrote in the post that every little thing helps, saying if they can’t get customers inside, the bakery wouldn’t make it after 8 years of business.
“Telling people if they can’t come in, I can’t pay the bills and I can’t pay the staff,” Richardson said. “It kind of went viral on us and they cleared us out.”
Richardson said by the next day, the post was shared about a thousand times and that countless customers purchased everything in stock within two days.
“I can’t believe the amount of people that came in, waited in line just to pick up any little treat they could and it was greatly appreciated,” she added.
She explained, “This last month has been real hard. We depend on our walk-ins and when nobody was coming in, I didn’t know what to do.”
Richardson added, “We try to do a lot of things for other people, fundraising and donations and when I needed the help, everybody stepped up and came in and I appreciate every one of them.”
Meantime, The Essex Centre Streetscape and Victoria Avenue project is estimated to continue throughout the summer into the fall and be complete in December 2023.
“There's a lot more to come, unfortunately,” said Mayor Sherry Bondy. “But fortunately because it'll be beautiful when it's all said and done.”
According to Bondy, underground work is coming soon, with focus shifting to big item things like curbs, roads, and sidewalks.
Bondy said she put forward a Notice of Motion for this Monday’s council asking how the town can better support businesses and bring shoppers to the core while construction continues.
“We know that they had a couple of years of lock downs and this is also a challenge,” Bondy told CTV News. “So we're asking people again to shop local and see if there's anything else we can do. For example, can we hire more social media influencers? Can we look at newspaper, radio, TV ads? What else matters for the businesses?”
Bondy continued, “Maybe we bring back a mini facade grant where businesses have access to grant monies again and just really looking for a brainstorming session with council to see what do we do next and how do we further help them.”
“We want our businesses to be successful. There is ample parking. If you go to Essex streetscape on our website, you will see all the free municipal parking lots that are just a block away,” said Bondy. “Ken Knapp Ford has a free shuttle service that they're doing. You can park at Ken Knapp Ford in beautiful downtown Essex and they'll drive you to our businesses. So we really are trying to make sure our businesses do really well now.”
Bondy suggested recent summer like weather had been a boon to progress for construction, but stopped short of saying the project could be completed sooner than expected.
“We never want to jinx ourselves but I think we have a great contractor here in the area,” Bondy said. “They’re staying on schedule, the weather has been cooperative, so there’s so many variables up in the air. You never know what you’re going to find with construction. So that’s why we just want to make sure that we’re supporting local during the construction.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.