A York Road business that recently took to social media for help from the community is ‘on the verge of losing everything’ due to a steady stream of road closures since opening more than two years ago.
“We were under the impression when we were opening that the road was going to be all done,” said Vino Sutha, whose father, Suthaharan, owns the Global Gas station at 390 York Rd.
The family purchased it just over two years ago, doing heavy renovations after the place had sat empty for more than 10 years, he said.
‘After that, it's just been like, every six months. Every year they close it; they open it up in the winter, and they close it again in Spring.”
Each time it closes, they see at least a 30 to 40 per cent drop in profits.
He said the construction on the road is confusing for anyone trying to find the gas station, and that most people make it half way down the road before turning around and going elsewhere – if they even know it exists.
“There’s so many trucks, all the piping and everything just blocking all the way. No one can see through,” he said.
The only way they've been able to survive so far is by reducing their hours. Even so, between the pandemic, growing interest rates and the road closures, things have been piling up for the Sutha family.
“Everything was getting closer and closer to that point where we (would have) to close, and we couldn’t do anything much about it,” he said.
Desperate and unsure of what to do, many suggested they turn to social media for help.
“It was kind of like a Hail Mary.”
The video, posted on TikTok late last week, already has more than 272,000 views and nearly 500 comments.
Just three days later, they’ve already begun to see a response from the community.
Sutha said posting the video seems to have spread awareness that the gas station exists and is accessible, and that they’ve been seeing a lot of support from the community the last few days.
“It’s amazing how many people have come by from seeing the video,” he said. Someone even drove for an hour to be there, “just because he wanted to come down to show support.”
“We know (the construction) has to be done … it’s just taking so long” he said, adding that they would just like to see better communication about when it’s actually going to be finished.
Beyond that, he said he hopes the community will "just come down. That's all we're looking for."
@global.gas 📍 Global Gas Station, 390 York road Guelph ON, N1E 3H4📍 #familybusiness #roadclosed #gasstation #universityofguelph #uog #guelph #conviencestore #construction ♬ Get You The Moon - Kina
