Business is booming for Costco amid the coronavirus pandemic as hundreds of shoppers lined up outside the store in Vaudreuil-Dorion on Thursday.
Just steps away, in its shadow, lies Luc La Prairie’s small business, which he says is barely earning enough to keep the lights on. “Costco has a 400-foot lineup and I get 10 to 20 people a day.
It’s awful,” said La Prairie, who owns William J. Walter. Selling everything from sausages to craft beer, 98 per cent of the products in La Prairie’s store are from Quebec, with many from nearby surrounding regions.
La Prairie says springtime is his peak season as people fire up their grills. But since the pandemic started, his store has been empty. “The numbers should be going up, but instead they went