ByWard Market businesses suffering during ongoing downtown protests

Businesses in the ByWard Market say they are seeing some of their worst sales since the start of the pandemic because of the ongoing truck protests.

Andy Choudhury owns York Street Spa in the ByWard Market. He says the past eleven days have meant a massive hit to businesses. “We have been impacted quite badly,” he says.

Choudhury says, “Last weekend we had a cancellation rate of 75 per cent, and we have been fighting COVID-19 for the past two years and this sort of like a double whammy. It will be very difficult for us to withstand if we don’t get any help or get this resolved quickly.”

Choudhury says last week, more than half of the appointments at the spa were cancelled. He says customers are nervous to come to the market and worry about road closures, noise, parking, and safety. He says the spa employs about 20 people who have also lost shifts and pay due to the protests.

He says he worries there is no end to the convoy and that it will have long term impact. “We are apprehensive about the Valentine’s Day weekend. Traditionally, it has been one of the busiest weekends in the year and we don’t know how it is going to impact our business. We depend a lot on the Valentine’s Day weekend for revenue. We are very scared about how this is going to affect our business.”

Some businesses say they are seeing some of their worst sales since the start of the pandemic.

Pat Nicastro at La Bottega Nicastro on George Street says, “This has probably been our slowest ten days since the pandemic. We basically stayed open, we would have closed, but we kept our staff fully employed but it was really hard- the hardest ten days since the pandemic started for us.”

The protests comes as many restaurants were hoping to rebound with the return to indoor dining. But Kimberly Ryan, events manager at E18hteen and Side Door says the convoy is keeping customers away.

“Last week we probably lost about $20,000 in business,” she says. “Who I really feel sorry for is my staff. My kitchen team is losing a shift every day, my front of house team is losing between two and three shifts a day.”

Some staff are only working for a few hours as opposed to a full eight-hour shirt, “just to keep them alive somewhat,” says Ryan. “This should have been a time when we reopened and it was a celebratory time, right now it is now, it is very tense, very stressful and people are losing a lot of money.”

Ryan says many customers are calling about reservations later this week worried about noise or not being able to find parking.

Ryan is hoping the convoy ends soon and peaceful and customers will return to support local businesses. “People can come and support us for sure!” says Ryan.