Ed Knuckles is the sole owner of Knuckles Truffles, a gourmet chocolate shop tucked into the corner of a yellow townhouse on York Street.<\/p>\n
Knuckles managed to keep the shop open throughout an entire year of the pandemic, and chocolates sales have done well despite COVID-19.<\/p>\n
He did unfortunately have to downsize his caf\u00e9, which had just nicely hit its stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just getting up to double booking, it just starting to catch on, and then COVID came and everything just dropped off,\u201d Knuckles recalls. \u201cIt was a very difficult decision to make [to close the caf\u00e9]. Opening up a caf\u00e9 is quite an expensive proposition, and as long as it was open, I could pay all my loans off and my debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government required sales figures from 2019 when determining profit loss and COVID-19 assistance, which meant that Knuckles wasn\u2019t able to claim anything.<\/p>\n
2019 was unfortunately one of his worst years financially, and the government refused to review figures from any other year.<\/p>\n
So Knuckles has been getting by with only his own savings and the CERB.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the luck of the draw for me. If I could have compared them to the year before [2018], which is which was our best year, then I could have shown the loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knuckles says that since he\u2019s a chocolatier, his services aren\u2019t exactly \u201cessential\u201d and may not be a priority for people on a pandemic budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect people to be crashing the doors down every day,\u201d laughs Knuckles, and says he has a steady income with big booms around \u201cchocolate holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knuckles says that perhaps he needs to compromise with technology in order to expand the business, since online take-out and delivery services are expanding during COVID-19.<\/p>\n
He is not a huge fan, but understands that a picture is worth a thousand words.<\/p>\n
Ed is grateful for the emotional support throughout this difficult year, including his partner Stan who has been by his side.<\/p>\n
\u201cSackville is a lovely little town that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n