Local business owner Brent Kenny is making changes to some of the services he provides due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kenny owns multiple different small businesses and is currently worried that some won’t survive.

“I'm a multi-business owner. I own the bottle depot and I have multiple other entities that I run out of the same building and they’re all grinding to a halt.”

Kenny says he has shut down the bottle depot temporarily due to lack of customers.

"Due to the decline in customers coming in because they're doing the right thing, the risk isn't worth the reward because we're doing such a little volume in the bottle depot now that we're losing money and my workers are running out of things to do."

Kenny says he will reassess around April 15th to see if it's possible to reopen.

Kenny is also worried that if this continues too long, some of his entities may not recover.

"If it goes too long then the public starts looking at amazon and they start looking at different avenues and the small businesses will all suffer. I'm not worried about the bottle depot. I'll be able to start that up again when the virus goes over. It's just some of my other sideline ones."

The uncertainty is part of the reason Kenny opened his bulk food orders to the general public.

"That's why we decided to offer the restaurant supplies and those things to the public as well. We used to strictly sell it to restaurants but they are all closing and we do work for the mine and they've cut their workforce. Everybody is just in lockdown panic mode."

Kenny says there is a decent amount of items available to the public.

“It's about a 30-page list of items people can order. The list will grow as the demand rises for things. We're trying to keep a limited selection because there are just so many items we can get and it's really difficult to decide which items to get. What we've done is check with our sales person and the company we deal with and asked for one or two best selling selections of certain items. We're doing this to be efficient and so that people don't receive something that isn't satisfactory to them."

Kenny says the items are listed on their website and can also be found on their Facebook page.

“Presently we have a website up. It's been mostly on the Facebook page but we do have a website and all the information is posted on our Pass Beverages website. The prices are listed on the website as well. It's more bulk foods than it is everyday grocery items. I think there's 32 items presently on the site and there is a price for each one.”

People interested in using this service can phone the Pass Beverages office and place an order.

Currently, Kenny says they receive shipments two days a week.

Customers can pick up their orders once ready at the Pass Beverages location.

Kenny says customers can also ask about delivery as well if that's preferred.

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