August is usually the busiest month for Edmonton’s Sugared and Spiced Baked Goods, but with a lack of festivals and less foot traffic the bakery has seen business whisked away.
The business is closing its doors for a week, and shared the news Wednesday via social media.
“No one in our team or adjacent to our team is sick but we are worn out and our business model is not currently working and we need to step back to re-asses,” co-owner Jeff Nachtigall said.
Nachtigall said their best month has turned into their worst, because of the cancellation of the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival.
“Fringe week is our highest revenue week of the whole year next to the week before Christmas and this year it was our lowest revenue week,” Nachtigall said.
A report released recently by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) shows that business confidence in Alberta for August has increased compared to last month.
“It does show that the 12-month outlook for Alberta is at 64 points, which is quite good,” said Annie Dormuth, the director of provincial affairs for the CFIB.
July had a barometer rating of 58.1, and it went as low as 26 in March. While confidence may have increased, Dormuth said that does not translate into the current reality many small business owners are facing.
“Nineteen per cent of small businesses right now are considering closing their business all together, which is actually significantly higher from the national average which is around 15 per cent,” Dormuth said.
To avoid any sort of permanent closure, Nachtigall says they will be shifting away from walk-in traffic and focus more on pre-orders, while also updating their website.
“We just need to shift again and examine how we do things to make sure things are still profitable… well not even profitable [more so] that we break even all the time.”
“I feel like we’ll be here for the long-term cause this is what we do and I also feel like lots of businesses won’t be around in six months…. I hope it gets better,” Nachtigall said.
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