How businesses are coping 5 years after COVID-19 pandemic and it’s not all bad [Video]

When the first spring of the COVID-19 pandemic neared, West Coast Seeds found itself scrambling to satisfy Canadians who had nowhere to go and little else to do than garden.

“We noticed a huge escalation in sales — and I’m not talking 20 per cent. I mean hundreds or thousands,” recalled Aaron Saks, president of the Delta, B.C.-based seed business.

“I don’t even know how to calculate how much growth we were seeing on our website, but it was to the point where our competitors … had to shut down their websites for the most part because they just couldn’t keep up with orders.”

To be able to handle skyrocketing demand, West Coast Seeds started to only accept orders during a four-hour window between Tuesday and Thursday. Almost 200 staff, including many new members, worked around the clock from outdoor wedding tents erected to help with social distancing measures and …