It’s a Saturday morning in early February. Temperatures in Ottawa are a frigid -20C, with a wind chill that makes it feel even chillier.
And yet, outside The Merry Dairy – an ice cream shop in Hintonburg – a line of customers, some still wearing pajamas, forms soon after sunrise.
Ice cream? In the dead of an Ottawa winter?
Yes, says the shop’s owner, Marlene Haley.
“People think it’s too cold for ice cream,” she said in an interview. “But ice cream in the winter is a great treat.”
“We have a line of customers waiting outside in their snow suits, winter coats and caps in the cold, hoping to receive a hot chocolate, coffee or ice cream on a freshly-made waffle.”
The annual event, dubbed IC4B, which stands for Ice Cream for Breakfast, is just one of the innovative ways The Merry Dairy tries to remain in the hearts of its customers in the off-season.
The winter months are hard for many small businesses in Canada, grappling with a variety of difficulties, including low sales, labour shortages and supply disruptions. But it can be a particularly challenging time for small businesses that depend heavily on or are generally associated with warmer weather.
To confront this challenge, many small businesses use the winter months to get ready for the upcoming spring, explore new merchandising opportunities or take advantage of e-commerce to reach customers who don’t want to leave the warm and cozy confines of their homes.
“Sometimes shutting down is better than not because a huge amount would be spent on labour and operations, which are more expensive.”
Mostafa Fallah, general manager, Artistic Landscape Design.
Stocking up or shutting down?
Brandon Chin Quee, who manages Tall Tree Cycles, an independently-owned bicycle shop on Sunnyside Avenue in Old Ottawa South, said one big challenge during the winter is that business is slow, with the majority of the shop’s sales made in the spring and summer seasons.
Since there are hardly any sales during the winter, he said the business has to refocus and plan for the warmer months, which are its busiest periods. “Winter season is a time we stock up on bikes for sale. The season is tough for small businesses,” he said.
A 2023 survey from KPMG reported by the Canadian Press said 60 per cent of small businesses are affected by the weather, with 44 per cent seeing a direct hit to revenue.
Artistic Landscape Design, a garden centre on Bank Street near Greenboro station, is another business that feels the drop in temperature, both physically and in its sales.
Mostafa Fallah, the garden centre’s horticulturist and general manager, says the outdoor gardening industry during the winter is non-existent because most plants cannot survive the cold weather. That sometimes forces shops like his to make difficult decisions.
“Sometimes shutting down is better than not because a huge amount would be spent on labour and operations, which are more expensive,” he said.
Fallah said the garden centre has ventured into the sale of Christmas trees and decorations. But unfortunately, according to the horticulturist, there is not a big demand in Ottawa for artificial or regular Christmas trees, hence, the business is not making a lot of sales.
Exploring innovative solutions to thrive in winter
Josephine Mensah, a business advisor at Oneness Career Coaching Inc. in Ottawa, urged small business owners to proactively develop solid plans for the winter season to avoid being caught off guard.
“Businesses should carefully evaluate their business plans and have exceptions for these kinds of emergencies,” she said. “They should have an inventory where they take stock of the business activities and confirm the kind of verification they have on their website.”
Mensah also said close monitoring of the weather and anticipating the losses that can occur during the winter season would enable business owners to plan adequately.
The use of e-commerce has helped boost small businesses, said Bowen James, a professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.
James, whose research work is focused on small businesses, including start-ups, as well as teaching practical applications of technology, said buying and selling goods and services over the internet has helped small businesses achieve a large clientele.
In his opinion, e-commerce sales platforms would help to expand the reach of small businesses during the winter. “The commerce environment is one of the attractions in the wintertime because of free shipping or the emphasis on same-day delivery,” he said.
Another method of survival for small businesses is reducing prices to keep customers coming, he added.
“People want to go somewhere warm and have an interesting shopping experience,” James said. “Small businesses should reinvent their business and start selling beverages and food products so that when people go to the store, they can have some hot apple cider.”
James said the challenge of the winter months is that an interruption of the customer’s buying pattern could be permanently disruptive, adding that what small businesses need to do is reestablish those buying patterns as quickly as possible.
Thriving despite the storm
While many businesses slow down or shut down during the winter, some reinvent themselves.
Haley, whose shop, The Merry Dairy, is known for its hand-made, original-recipe premium ice cream and nut-free frozen custard, uses clever marketing to capitalize on the winter season.
The Merry Dairy has attempted to adapt and overcome the winter lull by introducing festive flavours just in time for Christmas. In addition to the holiday-themed flavours and annual Ice Cream for Breakfast event, Haley has delved into business ideas like delivery services, as many individuals find it difficult to leave their homes at night during the colder months.
“We offer ice cream delivery from Wednesday through Saturday, which has significantly increased our sales,” she said.
Storytelling is also part of the strategy the business has explored, using beautiful photographs of ice cream that make people excited to want a taste, evoking a strong sense of nostalgia.
Haley pointed out there are few businesses making ice cream cakes, and that’s something she sells a lot of in the winter because people still have birthdays in the winter.
“Every single winter has been different,” she said. “And that has influenced customer buying patterns for ice cream.”
