Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

COVID-19

Historic family-owned Kamloops businesses take pandemic changes in stride

Apr 22, 2021 | 4:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — While businesses go through the startup-to-closure cycle every year, there are several family businesses in Kamloops that have been around for decades. They have seen good times and bad, but nothing quite like the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, some of these well-established local businesses are faring better than they might have expected.

Newell Flower Shop was established by Brian Field’s grandparents in 1938. The shop has moved a few times since than and would have been around during the polio epidemic, but the business has never seen anything like COVID-19.

“Nothing to the degree of what we’re facing now,” said Field, who now owns the shop. “Yes, there were economic ups and downs, but were weathered as needed to be in order to continue going forward.”

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Even as many community businesses have struggled during the pandemic, Newell Flower Shop has held its own, with online sales and contactless delivery.

“The sympathy business is also different in that people are unable to have traditional services,” Field said. “But friends and family still wish to acknowledge and will send flowers to the residence rather than to the service itself.”

Gary’s European Sausage & Deli has been in Jurgen Gemsa’s family since 1978.

“Nothing compares to the pandemic. Probably the weirdest thing that’s happened since we’ve been here is years ago Safeway was on strike for I forget how long, it might have been a couple months,” Gemsa said. “That impacted our business a little bit, actually made us a little busier.”

Gemsa says the pandemic has had a similar impact, especially early on when there were supply concerns.

“We were crazy busy when there were a lot of scares with the packing plants and a lot of people were panick-buying, we were seeing sales rise probably 20 per cent,” he said. “That was during our kind of April, May slower months. Everything’s kind of leveled off now, we’re probably still five-to-six per cent busier than we normally would be.”

The North Shore business has had to rearrange to adhere to provincial safety guidelines, but has adapted well to the challenge.

“We’ve had very few days where it’s impacted us,” Gemsa said. “You might miss a day or two here where somebody might have a scare, but for the most part we’ve been straight ahead go.”