The Canada-wide demand for masks made by a Thunder Bay business owner has grown since she made the switch from a clothing store back in March to fight COVID-19.
Valarie Midgley runs the Whole Nine Yards, and tells us she’s hiring more people with orders backed up to the end of June.
“Which is great, so we’re able to hire people within our community, keeping our dollars at home, which is wonderful. We have a number of people who are laid off at their other jobs, and they would rather be working than be on Employment Insurance,” says Midgley.
She adds they were shipping internationally, even to Australia, although that has lessened somewhat.
“It’s still possible, but it costs an absolute fortune to do so at this time. But we’re still shipping across Canada, we shipping everywhere from P.E.I. all the way to Vancouver,” adds Midgley.
She points out they’re so overwhelmed, she’s had to make adjustments to what she does.
“We created a ‘you sew kit’, where we give you all the cut goods, and instructions, so you can sew five masks at home. And the turn around time for that is like 24 hours,” points out the Whole Nine Yards owner.
The Fort William Road business owner adds she’s also looking at other product lines since this will likely keep her busy for some time.
