Bakery closes Westbank site
Just months after putting it up for sale, Bliss Bakery has closed its store on the Westside permanently.
The store at the Snyatan shopping centre at 3608 Carrington Rd. had been closed for January. Bliss Bakery announced on social media Wednesday afternoon the location would remain closed.
Bliss locations on Stevens Road in West Kelowna, Beach Avenue in Peachland and Ellis Street in Kelowna remain open.
“It’s heart breaking,” said Darci Yeo, who owns and operates three Bliss Bakery locations with her husband, Barry. “When you build a store like that, it’s part of you.”
But she said they were trying to make the best decision for the business as a whole.
A year ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Carrington Road store had been a successful location, but it relies on its seating capacity, which had been greatly diminished by COVID-19 regulations.
The Carrington Road store was not performing as well as the others and the Yeos had put the store up for sale last November.
They had cut their staff due to the pandemic and were feeling stretched, they explained at the time.
“COVID put tremendous pressure on a lot of businesses, but especially the smaller family business,” said Darci. “We felt that our energies would be better put into the stores and the areas of the business that are doing well.”
The Yeos received an offer and planned to close the Carrington Road location after Christmas with the new owners coming in at the end of January.
The deal fell through at the end of December when the new owners were unable to come to an agreement with the landlord.
The Yeos had already allocated their staff to other Bliss locations.
The Ellis Street in Kelowna and Peachland stores are doing well, said Darci, adding they are not looking
at closing the other locations.
“Bliss is not looking at going away,” she said. While she thought a drive thru would do well at the Carrington Road location, Darci said it wouldn’t work for Bliss as they change their products every day.
“Drive-thru doesn’t fit our model,” she added. The closure of the Carrington location has allowed Bliss to focus on other enterprises such as frozen meals, which are now available.
“We’ve been blown away by how much demand there is,” said Darci, “I think because a lot of people aren’t going to restaurants, they’re looking for different meal options.”