A popular long-time Vancouver business is struggling to make ends meet and has reached out to the community for help.
Finch’s Teahouse at West Pender Street and Homer Street has been a staple of the Vancouver coffee and sandwich scene for almost 20 years.
Now the owner says since being forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of inflation and the continuing vandalism has made it impossible to stay afloat.
They are now $90,000 in debt and have started a GoFundMe for help.
Sheryl Matthew, the owner and operator of Finch’s Teahouse says that COVID was a terrible time for everyone, “but the sort of pressure that came with it in 2020 feels like it landed that time on a lot of small businesses.”
In addition to the financial hardships, Matthew said the vandalism has become rampant.
The windows of the business have been smashed nine times in the past 18 months alone, with the latest happening at 2 p.m. on a Saturday while the cafe was full of people.
“Someone was just walking along the street and he stopped, smashed the window and dude just kept on walking,” Matthew said.
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“I don’t know. I don’t even know if we know what he smashed it with. It’s not that easy to smash a window. He must have been quite upset. And I’m sure he was having a terrible day. And that’s the trouble, is there’s too many people having really terrible days, you know?”
Matthew said there has also been construction outside, which took away their parking and that hasn’t helped their situation at all.
The GoFundMe is an attempt for Finch’s to try and pay back some of that debt and keep afloat.
“It’s just really appreciated,” she said.
“I appreciate it, my staff appreciate it. My kids appreciate it, you know? Yeah, it’s been a lot for a few years now. I feel like I’ve barely seen my kids for three years. So it’d just be very appreciated. And then we can stick around and keep, you know, nice little character corners of the city.”
Another popular Vancouver business has already decided it is closing its branches permanently.
“For the past nine years, Tacomio has been more than just a restaurant; it has been a vibrant community where friendships blossomed and memories were made,” the business stated on its website. “Each neighborhood we’ve been a part of has left an indelible mark on our hearts, and the relationships we’ve built with so many of you are treasures we will carry forever.
“This decision has not come easily. The severe impacts of COVID-19, escalating costs, rent hikes, government taxes, and labor shortages have created an environment where continuing our journey has become untenable.”
Starting in the fall, small businesses in B.C. could apply for a grant to help cover the costs of vandalism and other smaller crimes.
“So far we’ve had 783 applicants and 380 of them are for the reparative stream,” Brenda Bailey, Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation of B.C. told Global News.
“So there’s two streams to the grant. One is to help with things like broken windows or vandalism, and the other one is to do preventative measures. So it’s interesting that there’s so much interest in the preventative measures.”
Bailey said businesses should expect to receive money “very soon.”
She added that it is important for the government to provide support to those businesses.
“One of the major things we’ve done to help restaurants is allowing them to purchase alcohol at discounted rates, 20 per cent discount. And that’s money that goes right back to helping restaurants run their businesses. And since we began that program, it’s been over $90 million that we’ve helped save restaurants.”
Matthew said she is going to look into applying for the program.
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