We are now more than two months into a new way of living life in a pandemic. My life in some ways is exactly the same and in some ways is completely turned upside down. I still go into the building every day and most of my businesses operate almost as they did before. I will tell you that not having to get up and make lunches and attempt to get my kids on the bus every morning is wonderful. However one lunch has been replaced by nothing short of 15 meals a day so maybe that one lunch I hated packing wasn’t so bad after all. I no longer get phone calls from the kid's schools of what they have done now or who needs to go to the hospital but let me tell you there are no words for how not fun it is when I have to bring them to work so they don’t wreck my house, take off or hurt each other. We not even going to speak about trying to teach them anything, that just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
What does Oley’s look like now that the effects of COVID-19 have been seen? While the auctions remain shut down for just a little longer, the Armoury has expanded so the inside of the building looks a little different. There is a stand at the door with hand sanitizer for you to use to protect the staff and others coming in and the main surfaces are disinfected as often as possible. Everyone has been very respectful to remain the required 6ft apart and the building is large enough to easily support this.
The Armoury has been insanely busy, especially at the start of the pandemic. I brought in more firearms and ammunition in the month of March than I did in the first three years the Armoury was open all together. That just happened to be at the time that the Armoury expanded and has almost doubled in size in the building. The expansion was needed desperately and now there is room to move and even a dedicated area just for mounting scopes. Two months later the suppliers are running out of almost every caliber of firearm. The manufacturers are not producing and there is almost no supply at all to meet the demand. If you know anyone thinking of selling used firearms-send them my way! I am doing everything I can to keep as many firearms as possible in store and if I can’t get them new then I need to get them used.
Overall Oley’s is doing well. The staff are all still employed and have been using a lot of this time to upgrade the building and get to tasks which were just impossible to find time for before. Please remember that it is crucial at this time to support small businesses. Large corporations have millions of dollars backing them, for Oley’s and so many other small businesses there is just one person funding it all and everything they have worked so hard to build hinges on the continued success of their business. We will all get through this by supporting the local businesses who so desperately need it as much as we can.