Nursery disappointed with reopening guidelines from Ontario government

Premier Doug Ford announced on Friday that certain businesses are able to reopen, which included nurseries and garden centres. 

The catch is that they can only be open for pick-up and delivery. 

Perry Grobe, Owner, Grobe's Nursery and Garden Centre said this reopening guideline doesn't help them. 

“What he (Ford) was giving us was something that we already had, because we already had the ability to offer curbside pick-up on many things that were non-perishable, non-small prior to that, there really was no softening or change to what he was giving us quite frankly.”

He said the current model the government is allowing them to use is not sustainable for their business. 

“Only maybe 20 to 30 per cent of our business could possibly be done curbside even at the best of times. The revenue generated at this time pays for everything for the rest of the year.”

He added that's not financially feasible for them, “It's just not possible to grow and compile an order of $2 and $3 plants, without having the cost of that compilation to be in far excess of what the order is worth.”

Grobe said they thought they would be able to allow people into their store. 

“We actually altered our entire store, both our entry and the way they would visit it, we had spacing guidelines throughout the store, we altered all our kiosks, we had masks for all our staff and sanitization stations.”

He said if they don't have certainty that they can sell a product they won't produce it because it's too costly.