BARRIE -- After preparations were made to host thousands people this weekend, you could count the number of visitors on one hand Saturday at the Bradford Greenhouses.
"We will see a decrease in people coming in our doors because the (Home and Garden) show was cancelled, and people are staying at home trying to minimize their exposure to large crowds," says assistant store manager Gabrielle Polman.
On Friday, the Greenhouse decided to cancel the annual show for the safety of its vendors, workers and customers.
"We're disappointed, but we feel that we truly made the best decision," says Polman who adds the annual event was expected to attract 7,000 visitors, "we've also increased our sanitary measures so we can make sure that customers can feel that they are in a safe environment."
Scheduled events for next weekend have already been cancelled.
Meantime restaurants in downtown Barrie are also feeling the pinch. The Farmhouse is open for business, but they're closely monitoring the situation.
"We always take precaution," says head chef Chris Gardiner, "but now we are taking extra steps, and if anyone shows any signs of being sick, they're told not to come in at all."
He says they're also taking additional measures.
"We've been doing extra sanitizing and making sure people have been washing their hand; we started a handwashing log so we can keep track of that."
Down the street at McReily's Public House, every seat was empty at lunchtime. Server Rylin Talbot attributes the empty restaurant both to the Dunlop Street Construction and the Covid-19 virus.
"It is a bit of a scary time," says Rylin." we've noticed a bit of a shift in the volume of people that are coming in."
The pub says it's taking extra precautions while setting up extra hand sanitizing stations.
"We're doing everything that we can to make sure that we are still that space for our community," says Rylin.
The restaurant says its annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations will go on as planned on Tuesday.
