Eddi Rayle wondered if he had wasted his money by starting up a board game store at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goblins and Goblets opened on Main Street Newmarket in March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in full force, forcing him to close just days later.
Suddenly Rayle, along with co-owner and brother Felix, was faced with running a store based on in-person interactions without being able to have anyone inside.
But 18 months later, the store is still standing, and they were finally able to hold a grand opening Sept. 30. Rayle said it took adaptation to survive, but they were determined to stick with it.
"Just because something stops you, like COVID, it doesn’t mean you should stop,” Rayle said. “If it’s something you’re really passionate about, like how I am here, you should never let something stop you.”
The pandemic has hit businesses hard over the last 18 months — with about 12 per cent of businesses shutting down between February 2020 and September 2020, according to Statistics Canada. But others, including on Newmarket’s Main Street, have been able to pivot to survive and make it through the lockdowns.
For Goblins and Goblets, their answer was food. Rayle credited milkshakes for saving his business, as they filled a niche making unusual flavours such as bacon butterscotch. Over the pandemic, they had other take-out offerings focused on street food like hotdogs. They even had a ghost kitchen where they made homemade perogies.
“Hotdogs, corndogs, mozzarella sticks, something people can walk around with,” Rayle said. “That definitely paid the rent.”
Other businesses on Main Street have also survived with adaptation. Steven Gilbert, owner of Fourth Dimension Comics, has run his store for more than 23 years. He did not pivot his core business of comic books, but he kept running by connecting with customers online, selling at the shop's front door, or even doing home deliveries.
“It was a big cause-and-effect thing of just being more in touch with my customers,” Gilbert said.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Gilbert said he was intent on riding it out. He said customer loyalty and understanding from his landlord also helped.
“People had some pretty gloom-and-doom thoughts. At the time, I wouldn’t have been immune to that,” Gilbert said. “A lot of questions about the future of small business retail. But I just realized I wasn't ready to retire from selling comic books quite yet and continued with it.”
Both businesses say they are in a healthy place now — as long as they can stay open.
“Being open is where I need to be,” Gilbert said. “I’m optimistic that there won’t be any further lockdowns like there has been. Three of them is enough for me. If there was a fourth one, it might dissolve any of the optimism that I do have.”
Rayle said they have only been able to be the business they imagined since May of this year, but he is glad things are running smoothly after all the hurdles.
“I’m just so glad my brother and I decided to keep moving forward and not give up,” Rayle said. “I figured we went this far. Let’s just keep on moving forward.”
