A financially struggling bar in Toronto will stay afloat because of its customers who bought the entire beer stock helping the owner survive the pandemic.
Abra Shiner, owner of the bar, Swan Dive told reporters that her business will survive the pandemic thanks to her loyal customers who bought up the entire beer stock, providing her with desperately needed cash for running the business.
Shiner opened Swan Dive, five years ago in Brockton Village in Toronto, Canada, but Covid-19 restrictions forced her to shut the doors of the bar, after which she decided to ask for help from her community on Facebook.
Talking to CNN, Shiner said, “We were blowing through our savings and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to pay rent towards the end of the month, So, I wrote on Facebook asking people to come buy the beer we had in our stock room… and it worked. The post went viral”.
The post went viral in just two days and had over 20,000 views with people from all over the community rushing to Swan Dive to show their support to financially struggling bar. Overwhelmed with the response, Shiner shared, ‘People just started coming out of the woodwork, some people we hadn’t seen in years.”
Shiner also added that the bar was carrying 35 craft beers keeping two or three cases of each beer in a back stock, but after the huge amount of support shown, she was able to sell more than 90 cases and is now down to only two cases. “Our community completely saved us,” she adds.
Shiner states that with the money from the sales combined with the federal rent subsidy, she will be able to keep the business above water until she can safely open the bar’s doors again in March 2021.