Like many other businesses, Irvine's Tack and Western Wear is also feeling the pressure because of the current Canada Post strike.
Now into the fourth week of the strike, Leanne Irvine the owner of Irvine's explained they had to quickly pivot with the holiday season around the corner.
"We've had to pivot and switch gears and try to find shipping. We're using an online platform, which has been good. It's just the volume that we're shipping. The couriers don't want to pick it up now."
She explained UPS has been a good alternative but it's been hard trying to find somebody who is willing to deliver to remote areas that don't cost a lot of money.
"Before it would cost us $50 to ship a saddle, roughly, now it's $200-$300 to ship it which is too costly."
Irvine mentioned that they were somewhat prepared for the strike if it was going to happen, and now that it is ongoing, she did not think it would be this long.
"Canada Post was our main source of shipping. I don't know that we'll go back to them now. I think we might look for alternatives just because of all of this now."
She went on to explain one positive that has come out of this strike.
"We used to ship Canada Post always to the states, which the tracking wasn't the greatest. Now we've been shipping UPS to the States, which is a little less money and the tracking is great. That's been the big plus, and I think with the dollar changing, we're getting more orders from the US."
When it comes to customer service, Irvine's has seen problems with people trying to get refunds and complaining about not getting their items because of the strike.
"Canada Post has a bunch of our stuff and we can't get it back. So those customers are trying to charge back their credit cards and trying to get their money back, but we can't do anything, because we can't get our product back either."
She explained a lot of the time, the anger of the situation gets taken out on their staff which isn't fair and can be stressful for them.
"I've said it to my staff, we're all in this together. You're going to have to have patience and your gifts might not make it and you might need to shop local."
Irvine explained even bills have changed for them as they used to get them in the mail, but are now all online.
"We used to mail out cheques, but now we're all doing it digitally, and we won't go back."
She thanked everybody for being patient during this time and hopes everything can return to normal shortly.
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