Sudbury business owner with a plea to 'shop local'
With the arrival of Boxing Day, northern residents are still shopping for gifts, and one Sudbury business owner has taken to social media to ask locals to support his shop.
“If everyone in Greater Sudbury would spend just $3.00 in my store. It would change my life. The struggle is real,” wrote owner of Dan’s Candy Store, Daniel Wiebes, in a Facebook post.
The post has received almost 400 shares and 100 comments since he shared it on Dec.21.
“I’m overwhelmed it’s been non stop for two-days. People have come in they just said we just needed to know,” Wiebes told CTV News.
Wiebes has been in the party rental business for over two decades traveling around northern Ontario participating in Christmas festivals, school fundraisers, and Canada Day celebrations, but that all changed almost two years ago.
“All of a sudden one day I woke up and we had over 100 festivals booked and every single festival, every single school fun fair, every single wedding was all cancelled in one day and we had to decide on what we were going to do,” he continued.
“We couldn’t go to parks, we couldn’t go to the arena, we couldn’t go to halls, so we had to figure out a way to get the customers to come to us and the biggest thing that everybody likes doesn’t matter rain or shine is treat.”
With the colder weather, Wiebes closed up the trailer and decided to bring his business indoors.
“We opened up our doors three weeks ago and people just weren’t coming…so I just put it out there to the universe. I just picked a number. I said if everybody just spent 3 dollars and just came and said hi it would change my life,” he continued.
“If things don’t change I won’t be there when things go back to normal. That’s all I got to say.”
With over 40,000 views, Wiebes says he’s definitely noticed more people coming into the store since the post went up.
“Christmas Eve, we have our family tradition where the kids all get special treats and we watch a movie together and we came here,” says shopper Jodi Armstrong.
“He’s done so much for our community helping to support all of the organizations and activities we have going on so we like to keep our business local and support him to make sure he’s around for a really long time.”
Wiebes wants to encourage everyone to support all small businesses as he knows he’s not the only one struggling during these times.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Trudeau promises $1B in loans for child-care providers to expand care centres
The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child-care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will be extending further student loan forgiveness and training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
Spring allergy season has begun. Where is it worse in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
'Nonsense:' Doug Ford slams lawsuits filed by Ontario school boards against social media platforms
Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against a trio of social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
N.B. man wins $64 million from Lotto 6/49
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
Multiple bridges in Calgary shut down for police incident
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unravelled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency.
A dog and a bird formed an unlikely friendship. Their separation has infuriated followers
Peggy is a stout and muscular Staffordshire bull terrier, and Molly is a magpie, an Australian bird best known for swooping on humans during breeding season, not for befriending dogs. But in an emotional video posted online, Peggy’s owners announced that the animals had been separated.