Winnipeg small businesses hope for Christmas miracle to help stay afloat

It’s been a difficult few years for Winnipeg’s small businesses — from the pandemic to inflation impacting consumer trends.

Many small businesses in the city seem to be recovering well, as we move ever further away from COVID-19 lockdowns and other measures that hurt business owners.

But as always, the upcoming holiday season remains of vital importance.

“There’s still a lot of people that are continuing to do things online as opposed to venturing out and into stores, so that’s been a bit of a slow rise, but we’re really starting to see it come back in the last two months,” said Kari England, the owner of Toad Hall Toy Store in Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

According to the business development bank of Canada, the small business health index in Manitoba has been up and down over the past few years. In Q3 2024, it stood at 96.3, 1.5 per cent lower than last year but 0.5 per cent higher than last quarter.

There’s no secret that changes in the economic landscape have made things more difficult, and depending on the business, owners have had to get creative to stay afloat.

“I think the way we approached it was to ensure that we had a really great base of products that were under $20, and even under $5 and $10. So that they can pick and choose a number of different items and not break the bank for themselves,” said England.

“It’s always a struggle, particularly in the chocolate industry,” added Helen Staines, the owner of Decadence Chocolates on Sherbrook Street. “My chocolate prices increased 40 per cent in two years, so our chocolate prices went up. So again, it’s making the best of what we can, being very careful with how we use things and diversifying our product line to add in different items that might not be full chocolate to help with those margins.”

However, no mater the strategy, there’s nothing quite like the holiday season to provide a major boost for the health of small businesses.

“Christmas makes our year basically,” said Staines. “So, our Christmas season gets us through the slower months all year round.”

“For us, like many small businesses, the last six weeks runs anywhere from 45 to 50 per cent of our yearly sale, which is a lot,” added England. “So, we have to be super ready so when they start racing through the door we have everything in play.”