When Laura DiLuzio heard her 9-year-old daughter, Vivienne Clark, worrying that the Easter Bunny might not come this year, amid the stay-at-home advisory in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she wondered how many other children had the same thought on their minds.
So DiLuzio and her mother, Donna Christenson, who manage the Erving Station candy shop on Main Street in Erving, put their heads together to make sure all children — especially those in struggling households where their parents may have faced a layoff or furlough — had some goodies to enjoy for the holiday.
“We decided to make sure that, to the best of our abilities, we help the Easter Bunny,” DiLuzio explained. “Everyone who has a need, we’re going to try to meet it.”
As of Friday afternoon, DiLuzio said she and her mother — the only two people currently operating the candy shop, which usually has three additional part-time employees — had given out more than 200 free bags of candy that are usually priced at $11 or $12 each.
In addition to doing their part to raise spirits, DiLuzio and Christenson, like other business owners across the county for whom Easter is one of the busiest and most profitable times of year, have had to rethink the way they do business to avoid losing revenue, while also ensuring customer safety.
Because the store is closed to walk-in customers, DiLuzio and Christenson have been responding to calls, emails and Facebook messages requesting candy, and then bringing orders outside to waiting customers. In some cases, they even ship the orders by mail or deliver them personally.
“We’ve been doing deliveries for a few people in town,” DiLuzio said. “We’re small, so we’re community focused.”
DiLuzio and Christenson, who opened Erving Station in December of 2017, also got an online store up and running about two weeks ago so customers can place orders through their website.
“We changed our whole model basically overnight,” DiLuzio said.
Baked, a breakfast and lunch restaurant and bakery in Shelburne Falls, also had to revamp its operations to avoid serving patrons in-house on one of its busiest days of the year.
According to Barista Tami Garland, the venue usually sees 100 to 150 customers on Easter, filling the dining room for breakfast. And the meals available aren’t what the restaurant usually serves, either; instead, it offers specials just for the holiday, such as eggs benedict, stuffed French toast and lobster omelets.
“It’s pretty grand,” Garland said on Friday. “So we’re going to miss out.”
This year, the restaurant provided takeout and delivery, with some patrons ordering baked goods like breads and pies in advance and picking them up in person. It was not open on Easter Sunday.
Michelle Olanyk, owner of Mo’s Fudge Factor in Shelburne Falls, said she moved what business she could online and is offering pre-order pickup, but that sales have been down about 75 percent since the restrictions on businesses were put in place.
“This was a very quick change, and it will take some time to get information out to people, so ramping up sales will take a little time,” she said. “Also, there is the consideration of how to stay open and keep people safe, which changes daily.”
Both the candy store and the Davenport Maple Farm Restaurant — which Olanyk is involved in running — are closed to the public and all employees were laid off, with Olanyk hoping they can get benefits as soon as possible. Her family, including her daughter, who was laid off from her own job, have been instrumental to getting out Easter orders. Olanyk said almost everything is made to order right now to ensure nothing goes to waste.
“We are focused on trying to get through this in a way that will allow us to continue the business we have built for over 12 years and bring back the people who have worked so hard alongside us,” she said.
As for the decline in Easter candy sales, Olanyk believes “most people are doing what they can to make Easter for their children somewhat normal, but are probably buying what they can in the grocery stores and the few places they are still willing to go to.”
Certainly, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the holiday wasn’t on the forefront of many residents’ minds, said DiLuzio, who has experienced two previous Easters at Erving Station.
“On a normal Easter, people are shopping two or three weeks in advance,” she said on Friday. “This year, people have kind of put Easter on the back-burner and we’ve been getting a lot of orders just in the past few days.”
Changes in the way people shop for their Easter candy, DiLuzio noted, have also meant an increased workload for herself and Christenson. Usually, customers can peruse the store, pick out what they want and bring it to the register. Now, DiLuzio and Christenson must take orders through several modes of communication, collect the items themselves and bring them outside to waiting customers.
Plus, DiLuzio said it’s hard to sell candy that people can’t see, such as the unique sugar eggs she puts in a beautiful display case.
“I usually sell every single egg, but when you can’t see something, especially with a food item, it makes it a lot harder to sell it,” she said. “We have a lot of little items in our store, so to list them all online is labor-intensive.”
Despite the many more steps involved, DiLuzio said she and Christenson wanted to provide “a little bit of normalcy” for the holiday.
Similarly, Olanyk hopes Mo’s Fudge Factor can provide some joy during these trying times.
“We will still continue making fudge and chocolates,” she said, “and are working to come up with some fun takeout options that people can pick up and take home that will provide a little break and hopefully some joy throughout all of this change and uncertainty.”
At Baked, Garland agreed with the time of year’s importance, and said the restaurant and bakery’s staff sorely missed seeing their customers on Easter.
“(Easter), that’s a turn-the-page holiday … from winter into spring,” Garland said. “Now, it’s kind of like we’re stuck in a nightmare.”