Chamber hears from local retail businesses powering through COVID-19

Attendees came from various sectors and included Alana Sidoo (Arctic Spas Lethbridge, and Energy Smart Canada), Hunter Heggie (King of Trade), Samantha Conn (Green Rock Cannabis), Kaela Corazza (Public Image) and Laureen Regan (Boom Group).

ALANA SIDOO – Arctic Spas Lethbridge, and Energy Smart Canada

“The hot tub industry has been quite busy for us this past year, so we’re really thankful about that,” Alana Sidoo said, noting Arctic Spas and Energy Smart are both part of the retail industry, but cover different areas.

Sidoo is the general manager at both businesses. She said their main focus, at both outlets, has been strong customer service amid the pandemic. Sidoo said her staff works very hard to make sure each customer has an excellent shopping experience.

As far as challenges go, she said availability has been the one hitting Arctic Spas.

“The supply chain, I’m sure for everybody, has been interesting this year, so with most Arctic dealers we’ve been really humbled and encouraged by the support that we’ve seen and the interest in our product. But, with that interest and higher demand has come a slow-down in supply,” she said.

“We’re just trying to deal with that, that’s probably been our biggest struggle in the last few months here.”

For Energy Smart, Sidoo noted the challenge has been making alternative energy an economically feasible option for all citizens.

“Particularly, solar has come a really long way in the last years and becoming a more affordable option, but we’re really trying and really working hard to do the same for other alternative energy solutions, specifically geothermal.”

Sidoo said there are grants available for commercial jobs in the solar and geothermal industry, but none for residential, which is something she’d like to see going forward.

SAMANTHAN CONN – Green Rock Cannabis

Samantha Conn noted Green Rock Cannabis has a few stores, with locations in Lethbridge, St. Albert and Edmonton, and a new location coming to Sylvan Lake.

She listed education one of Green Rock Cannabis’ strengths. Conn noted they focus on educating customers and members around the community about the benefits of cannabis.

Conn believes Green Rock’s biggest strength is its focus on the community. She added that staff asks consumers and potential customers what they want to learn about when it comes to cannabis, giving customers the chance to choose what they hear.

“Since COVID, it’s been a little bit more difficult. We’ve been doing the meetings more virtually, but that’s been going well because we’ve been able to promote our social media that way,” Conn said.

She said a weakness they’re facing is “the stigma that surrounds cannabis” and a lack of education.

“It’s been a big thing to fight because we’ve had a lot of missed opportunities as far as education goes as a whole,” she stated.

“People still come in and have no idea what they’re looking for, they don’t know what they need. A lot of people are actually being sent by their doctors, but we’re not supposed to talk to them medically, so there’s a lot things we have to explain to people when they come in that they weren’t aware of.”

The Chamber’s Cyndi Vos posed the question on whether there would be more growth IF staff at Green Rock were given permission to speak about the medical effects of cannabis.

“There’s ways around how we talk about things, that we can still get that conversation out there, but it does make it more difficult because we are bordering a line when we do that, so it does make it difficult,” Conn responded.

Another weakness she noted was regulations.

“There’s so many regulations that we have to follow, but we’re kind of stuck in a middle zone between tobacco and liquor. I would say we have kind of the worst of both worlds. We’re not allowed to show our store,” she said.

“So, the windows have to be all fogged up and to me, that adds to the stigma. It feels like we’re hiding something [when] there’s nothing to hide … the biggest weakness is that we can’t advertise at all. We have to be very careful about where we’re advertising, who we’re advertising to and if there’s anyone under the age of 18, we can’t put anything there.”

She said Green Rock Cannabis has been open for the last seven months in Lethbridge, but even now, they have had customers enter the store and say they had “absolutely no idea” the store was there.

HUNTER HEGGIE – King of Trade

Heggie began his talk with the threats King of Trade is facing.

He said during the pandemic, about a quarter or a third of the population is choosing to stay home.

“Our sales are downward about 80 per cent of normal, so I mean, that’s fairly good compared to some others but I don’t know any businesspeople that are happy to be down 20 per cent year-over-year. In fact, even breaking even is not very good. We want to be up 20 per cent every year,” Heggie said.

A rise in online shopping has also hit his business and others particularly hard. Heggie said that inside King of Trade is a music store called Serious Music Centre.

“Over the last five years…you’ve seen the retail industry in music just be completely wiped out [in Lethbridge],” he said, noting there have been a number of music retail shops in the city to close down in the last few years.

“Serious Music Centre, believe it or not, is the last independent music retailer in Lethbridge. That’s kind of interesting. So, the online I think has done a lot with that and COVID might have put that over the top.”

Heggie praised the community and the ‘Shop Local’ initiative, saying Lethbridge residents have risen to support local businesses, even as they face challenges during the pandemic.

He added a focus for his business is customer service.

“That’s where we can beat the online world because we can really go above and beyond to help the customer.”

LAUREEN REGAN – Boom Group Inc.

Laureen Regan explained that Boom Group helps lead loyalty and rewards programs for its clients.

“We have, today, over 120,000 members who work for a while range of companies,” Regan commented.

“While we are predominately in Alberta, we’ve now seen significant growth over the last year throughout western Canada.”

She included Boom Group’s history as one of its strengths, noting Boom Group has been around for over a decade. Regan said they can connect with their members wherever they are in the country and the world, thanks to an increasingly digital world.

She said communication is also a strength for the Boom Group, and the team talks directly with member companies to see what strategies will be most advantageous to them.

“When a member company signs on, it’s not a matter of saying, ‘okay, now you’re a member company, see you later,’ it’s a whole journey for the entire time that we’re with them,” she said.

“We have [an] over 90 per cent renewal rate with our companies.”

Regan said economic uncertainty has been a weakness and challenge for Boom Group, because of “what it creates for our customers”.

“We’ve seen a huge up-take from our members perspective when it comes to their engagement in the platform. They’re clearly buying and engaging with all that online content, they’re still going into the stores that are open,” she said.

“But this economic uncertainty is creating a barrier for so many businesses when it comes to their ability to make a decision to invest in the advertising component or even the member company side.”

Another challenge has been connecting with prospective customers.

COVID-19 has made that difficult with many people working from home. Regan said they may not be able to call a prospective client’s main office like before, making it tricky to connect right away over the phone. However, she said that the shift to more digital work amid the pandemic has helped Boom Group expand its reach.

KAELA CORAZZA – Public Image

Kaela Corazza said Public Image is a branding company. The business offers screen printing, embroidery and other imaging services.

She listed a strength as building relationships with clients.

“I can sell anybody a hat. I can sell anybody a pen but if it’s just a waste of money and it’s not serving their company’s purpose, then why would [the client] do that,” she said.

She said they see new businesses coming in, plus existing franchises and she wants to make sure the client is happy at the end of the day.

“It’s pretty cool to see what we can come up with [for] each different business,” she commented.

Corazza said it’s important for any business to be engaged with the community, including with the Chamber of Commerce.

She said she wants to be better at following up with clients and admit that it’s okay to ask for help when it’s needed.

“One of my weaknesses is cold-calling. I have been so lucky that with word of mouth and just knowing as many people as I do, that stuff just falls into my lap and I’m ever so grateful,” said Corazza, adding shutdowns caused by the pandemic have caused some challenges.

“When schools start shutting down and teams start shutting down, you know, people are starting to worry – should we be spending our money on marketing right now? Stuff is starting to slow down.”

However, Corazza noted that as long as any business like hers are willing to get out and find someone who needs their services, they will find a client.

More on the above-profiled businesses can be found through the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce’s website.

by Justin Goulet

Chamber hears from local retail businesses powering through COVID-19

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