PORTLAND, Maine — As closures continue in response to Covid-19, some restaurants and shops have been forced to get creative; many now offer delivery services or curbside pickup. Three entrepreneurs in Portland decided to team up to keep business steady, offering date night deliveries of wine, cheese, and crackers.
I spoke with Amanda O'Brien, of Eighteen Twenty Wines; Nina Murray of Mill Cove Baking Company; and Mary Chapman of The Cheese Shop of Portland about the collaboration and how new regulations to distance have impacted each business.
"We used to be a very interactive store, you taste cheeses and other things, we are always working with customers to get them what they're looking for. Now we have to use that trust that we've built up with our customers to just be like, 'you're gonna like this, here we go, this is what we got for you.' It's kind of a different experience, but making it work," says Chapman about no longer allowing customers inside The Cheese Shop of Portland.
Amanda O'Brien's wine tasting room has also been forced to close, ensuring that people keep their distance for the next few weeks. "I think like everyone else, I'm so emotionally impacted by this. It was something I thought we could do to deliver a little bit of happiness or joy or something people could share with their friends or family, or an activity, or something to look forward to."
O'Brien says she recently took an order of five different packages; the woman wanted to send them to her friends so they could have a virtual moms' night.
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