Businesses such as dry cleaners, hair stylists and suit retailers say that things have gotten a whole lot better in recent weeks and months
The pandemic was hard for Moluk Fard, a tailor who runs her own clothing-alterations business, Needle & Thread, in midtown Toronto. With events shuttered and so many of her customers working from home, there were stretches when she wasn’t sure if she could make rent.
Tracey Crawley, owner of the Crowning Glory Hair Studio in Dartmouth, N.S., said the last two years had been a boom-and-bust cycle where lockdowns would keep her closed for months at a time, and then she would be run off her feet during reopenings because of pent-up demand among her clients. Working-from-home and remote work has been devastating to downtown businesses that relied on office workers for their clientele. But, while one in five Canadians still works from home, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent labour force survey, there has been a slow return to the office – at least some of the time.
Those in the dry-cleaning industry say customers have been drifting back, but revenue is still down some 30 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. And the last two years only accelerated trends that had already been going on for years, such as a rise in working from home, relaxed clothing standards in the office, and attire that doesn’t need special treatment by a professional.