Part 5 | COVID and the Closing of Biltmore

We're coming to the close of our 6-Part Series telling the story of C&Co. as we approach our 10 year anniversary. Click over to the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 to get up to speed.

At the start of 2020 we had finished up such a full holiday season and met for a crew meeting in late January to plan our goals for the new year. At the time this was just the beginning of COVID being mentioned around the world, but I was definitely listening.

We moved forward with planning our spring but like every other individual and business on this beautiful earth, we were impacted immensely because of COVID. We closed our doors on March 16th and did not open them back up for 8 full weeks.

During this dark time, we did what we do best. We took care of our crew, creating projects for them to work on at home and paid our bills. We offered an enormous number of sales to help our clients stretch their budgets and sent love notes to all we connected with.

The support we received from our online shop when our doors closed was incredibly impactful. It allowed us to keep our lights on and kept us moving forward with as much hope as we could.

For all of 2020, our entire world was just upside down. We all leaned into each other and continued to do our very best to beam hopefulness when things felt anything but that.

Because of all the uncertainty that loomed around us, I decided to consolidate our shops and made the move to permanently close our Biltmore Village location on our second anniversary. This was not a decision I took lightly, and it is still one that I reflect upon daily. 

Shortly thereafter I found that our consolidation created a more sustainable approach to our days. As a brand we were at the point where many of us were still holding a multitude of roles and it was exhausting. During our COVID closure I began the work on the framework to untangle the knots and create more defined roles for each of our associates. I knew that as we worked to get back on our feet we needed to do so with a stronger foundation and a clear picture of where we were going. Our crew needed extra stability at this time of total instability and I needed to keep working to provide just that.

Finish our series with us: Part 6