Curbside pickup and delivery not worth the trouble, says local garden centre owner

The owner of a local garden centre says selling plants and flowers while following the province's "strict safety guidelines" is more trouble than it's worth.

"The cost of compilation of that type of an order far outweighs the actual value, so that for every order taken you're actually losing a substantial amount of money," said Perry Grobe, owner of Grobe's Nursery and Garden Centre in Breslau.

Garden centres are among the Ontario businesses that have been allowed to reopen this week under certain conditions. For nurseries and garden centres, that means offering curbside pickup and delivery only.

Grobe says he wants the province to treat nurseries more like grocery stores, and allow some customers to shop inside while still following physical distancing guidelines.

Michael Davis, of Sheridan Nurseries in Kitchener, agreed that selling plants and flowers for curbside pickup is a difficult way of doing business. He's hopeful that the province will soon loosen restrictions to allow "open air" sales with a limited number of people allowed in at once.

In the meantime, he said, he's making do under the current rules.

"It can be done, it's just it is a bit more labour and we're a bit slower, obviously," he said.

Time of the essence, owners say

While the province is planning a gradual period of reopening, Michael Van Dongen said the clock is ticking for nursery owners who still hope to make a profit this year.

The sector earns the bulk of its revenue in the spring, and by now have invested a lot of time and effort into growing stock in anticipation of Mother's Day and the May long weekend, he said.

Van Dongen, who owns Van Dongen's Garden Centre in Milton, said he's petitioning the government to make a decision about garden centres within the week. Leaving it any later then that will be costly.

"Then we do start jeopardizing what we can do for the entire season," he said.

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for the minister of economic development, job creation and trade said the province's top priority is protecting people's health and stopping the spread of COVID-19.

"This gradual, thoughtful approach will allow Ontario to start emerging from the COVID-19 outbreak — safe, healthy and on the path to economic recovery. We will continue to adjust the list as required," the statement said.

As for Grobe, he said if he'd known his business could only operate in this limited way, he wouldn't have bothered growing any plants at all, and would've laid off staff back in March.

"It wouldn't have been happy, but at least we would have known where we're standing," he said.