When David Jennings set out to open a sandwich shop, he never thought that two years later, the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic fallout would happen.
“Nobody knew what to expect, or how to react to this,” says Jennings, who opened Hulk Hoagies in January of 2018.
“The restaurant business is very tight to begin with in the best of time, so being closed for three weeks has put us really behind.”
Jennings runs the Oshawa sandwich shop with his wife. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, he’s had to let go of his part-time employee and says he’s preparing for the worst case scenario — to ultimately pack it in.
“Things seem to be getting worse before they are getting better,” says Jennings.
“It’s something we have to take seriously now”.
His shop has been closed since St. Patrick’s Day, the time all restaurants were recommended to close to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Since then, the Trudeau government has offered help for small businesses like his, with wage subsidies and even the option of a line of credit up to $40,000. But the business owner says it still doesn’t help him.
“I believe the help is not as good as it was made to sound,” he said.
Although lots of business owners have turned to takeout, for David, Hulk Hoagies wasn’t built on that model.
“Seventy per cent of my business is walk-ins and that’s the surrounding businesses from around downtown Oshawa,” he said.
The problem, he says, is that with the size of his business, using takeout companies like Uber Eats cuts into his bottom line.
“if you’re going exclusively with third-party delivery companies, you’re coming in here and losing money,” he said.
Now, with several businesses facing the same, Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter is assembling an economic task force to try and help figure out how they can help those suffering from the shutdown.
The Oshawa BIA says more than 25 per cent of their members are struggling to make ends meet as the pandemic continues to disrupt people’s livelihoods.
“Things started off great,” Jennings says. “We got hit with a wall right here.”
It’s a wall that has put Jennings’ business — and many like it — at risk.
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