Calais, St. Stephen businesses adjust to pandemic restrictions

Who could have guessed that a worldwide pandemic would trigger a run on powdered skim milk and ukuleles in a little Canadian border town?
Powdered skim milk was not to be had in St. Stephen grocery stores on a recent Sunday afternoon. Flour was scarce, too, and one lucky customer got the last carton of eggs at the Atlantic Superstore. Are people stuck at home, doing their part to beat the coronavirus COVID‑19, baking more?
Stuart's Market owner Kevin Stuart feels more folks must be fixing their own meals "because they're staying home. They're cooking."
Tim Hortons offers a pedestrian version of drive‑through, allowing customers on foot to walk into the shop, pick up their orders and go, with the seating area and washrooms blocked.
The door is locked at High Tides Music on King Street, but owner Greg Jackson sold six ukuleles and a bass guitar online over two weeks to people who think they will learn to play an instrument while in self‑isolation. In more normal times Jackson might sell one ukulele a month and one bass guitar a year. "I sold six in two weeks, so that would be a shocker," he says. He is selling strings and picks to people taking the old guitar out of its case. And Jackson reports that online sales of marijuana accessories are holding up.
"But everything else in the store has slumped," Jackson says, with business down at least 75% overall. He laid off one full‑time employee, and he only works two or three hours a day himself handling online orders and making deliveries to homes. Most people pay electronically, which he likes. "I am accepting cash. I don't prefer it," he says. His landlord gave him a break on rent at the shop, and he and his wife intend to plant a big garden. He appreciates the online business at <hightidesmusic.com>.

Stores miss cross-border customers
The lack of traffic, on foot or by car, crossing the Ferry Point Bridge over the St. Croix River between the Calais and St. Stephen shopping districts evokes wistful feelings.
All Marden's stores including the one in Calais are temporarily closed "out of an abundance of caution," according to the company's website. Other Calais stores remain open without Canadian patronage.
"It's busy. People are worried. It's tough," says Manager Carla McLellan at TradeWinds Markets in Calais, saying that she misses her Canadian customers. The store is having trouble getting toilet paper and paper towels, cleaning products, wipes, sanitizers and rubbing alcohol. The store opens an hour early from 6 to 7 a.m. Monday to Friday for seniors and those with compromised immune systems.
Canadians go to Johnson's True Value Hardware looking for things they cannot find in Charlotte County. The store serves as a depot for Canadians to pick up packages bought in the United States, and those customers often buy something else while they are there, according to co‑owner David Johnson. "Obviously, we all have to work together to do what we have to do," he says, but adds, "We look forward to the day when we can get back to normal and have that free‑flow again, because it certainly can take its toll over time. Quite an adjustment." He, too, reports trouble keeping paper products, sanitizers, wipes and masks in the store.
Loblaws, which owns Atlantic Superstores, referred media inquiries to the Retail Council of Canada, but the healthy customer traffic and the lack of some products speaks for itself. Prominent signs warn people to keep their social distance, traffic control arrows on the floor direct shoppers up one aisle and down the other, one way only, and plexiglass separates staff and customers at checkout counters. The store, for now, uses only single‑use plastic bags. Other stores have taken similar measures. The Dollarama limits the number of customers in the store at a time.
Kevin Stuart was already planning a home delivery service when COVID‑19 struck. He delivers a basic box of produce, or more if requested, as long as the total sale comes to at least $20. He will leave the box on the step if the customer wants, but most prefer to pick up their orders curbside in front of the store, he says. "I just planned on doing it anyway. This happens to work in my favor," Stuart says. He suspects restrictions at the border will last awhile yet and does not know what the new normal will look like down the road.
Retail Council of Canada Atlantic Regional Director Jim Cormier in Halifax urges people on both sides of the St. Croix River to support local merchants and to desist from hoarding. "Strictly from a consumer traffic point of view, having the border closed is not a good thing. The more people you can attract into your store from your friends and customers on both sides of the border, that's a good thing," he says. "The people working in our stores, they live and work in communities like St. Stephen and Calais, so it is important to make sure that you look out for your neighbors, too."
"It doesn't benefit anybody if people are hoarding products," Cormier says, urging people to think about their neighbors. "Buy what you need to stock up for a number of days," he says. "The idea of hoarding is something that people should avoid."

Bagpipes and little food pantries
Some dogs are getting walked more than they likely ever did, with public officials telling people to get out and exercise -- just keep your social distance from others walking their dogs.
Grade 10 student Ian Curran caught everyone's attention by marching through St. Stephen playing his bagpipes. You can find it on his personal Facebook site, one of the daily episodes of Ian's Musical Spirit Show, which he started with school out for the rest of the academic year. "I was going to do something different that day, but I thought, because it was such a nice day, why don't I go outside and play some pipes and brighten some people's day," he says.
Alex Henderson decided to contribute by turning the Little Library in front of his Hawthorne Street home into the Hawthorne Pantry. The planner with the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission joined the Little Library movement in 2016, building a box and setting it in front of his house filled with books for people to take, read, return and swap on an honor system. He got the idea online to replace the books with nonperishable food items.
"People have been using it, so there's been food that's been coming and going, and it seems to be quite full right now, so we need more people to take food than drop it off. It's just a tiny box," he says.
He has no illusions that this effort will put the local food bank out of business, but he says, "We're thinking, what's most needed right now? And we had some extra food in our cupboards, so just thought it would be a good idea."
Henderson, who works from home these days, urges people to wash their hands before and after donating to and taking from the Hawthorne Pantry.