Courtesy / Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium
Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium’s co-founder Bill Coggins stands next to the store’s lobster mascot on a recent June day when, unusually, the sidewalk was almost free of passersby.
Updated: June 17, 2020
In Bar Harbor, a candy-making institution struggles through the pandemic
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
In typical years, crowds throng to Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium in Bar Harbor from spring through autumn.
Every summer, Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium is packed to the hilt with customers eager to buy a Willy Wonka-level array of homemade candies and ice cream.
The season this year is dismal.
“We’ve seen a drastic drop in the customer base,” Bill Coggins, co-founder and candy maker, told Mainebiz. “Cruise ships and bus tours stopped. Ninety percent of our business is from out of state. Sales now are 43% of last year.”
In a sign of the times, Coggins last Friday launched a GoFundMe campaign, seeking to raise $75,000 to help ensure the store stays open through the 2020 season and onward. Click here to see the campaign.
In his post, Coggins said that, with all cruise ships and bus tours banned from entering the town for the 2020 season, his business now has no way to recoup revenue lost during the two-month lockdown. The emporium also has few ways to generate new income from the loss of out-of-state tourism, which makes up more than 90% of the business.
“This has impacted our ability to keep our store open due to lack of revenue to cover the cost of ingredients, utilities and payroll for our loyal employees,” he wrote. “Our cash reserves are low and our payroll protection plan has already been implemented through the federal government, but this funding will be used up by June 24.”
What would one day become Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium began in 1956 with candy-makers Paul and Mary Trahan in Vineyard Haven, Mass.
Trahan's Candies opened in 1958, opened Massachusetts locations in Falmouth and Hyannis, then opened sites in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Bar Harbor stored opened in 1980. In 1983, the shop added homemade ice cream, increasing over time the number of flavors, including lobster ice cream.
In 1988, the Trahans sold the business to their nephews, Benjamin and William Coggins, who renamed the business Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium.
The store is in the heart of Bar Harbor’s retail center and above the cruise ship arrival point.
Coggins said he was preparing for the coming season when the pandemic lockdown forced him to close the store for two months. He subsequently installed the standard safety precautions, including a protective barrier in the middle of the customer lobby, plastic shields in each purchase window, and personal protective equipment for employees.
“These safety and health investments were well worth the cost of protecting our customers and employees, but it had no impact on the unprecedented number of tourists that are now being prevented from entering the state for their annual summer vacations,” he wrote.
Courtesy / Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium
Bill Coggins, right, and an employee pour out chocolate for homemade candies.
“We were fully stocked and ready to go. Then we had to shut down the third week in March,” he said.
The store usually closes January through March and makes a big push to prepare for its spring opening, he said.
“We live off the hotel crowd,” he said. “The majority of the hotels aren’t open. It’s a trickle-down: the hotels fill the restaurants, the restaurants at night fill the stores.”
Coggins said he refinanced his house to get money to pay the mortgage on the Ben & Bill’s building.
“I own the building but still have a good-size mortgage on it,” he said. “I’m 65. I was two years away from having my home paid off. Now I’m 10 years away.”
He set up the GoFundMe campaign to make sure he could keep his long-time employees on, he said.
Typically, he has five full-time employees year-round, and 18 in the summer.
This year, he’s at 11 full- and part-time employees. Some of the employees live on Mount Desert Island year-round and have worked for Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium for 20 years.
The shop is usually packed June through September and attracts a lot of cruise ship passengers, he noted.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the fall, because fall is when most of the bus tours and cruise ships come,” he said. “I have a feeling we’re going to be a ghost town in the fall.”
If the campaign doesn’t reach its goal, that will affect employee hours.
“I’ll probably have to drop hours in the store and maybe the length of the season,” he said. “We usually go through Dec. 31. If that doesn’t hit, you’re talking maybe Oct. 31. It’s hard to figure, because everything changes by the moment.”
Coggins said he’s committed to staying open for now, even at a loss.
“I’ve got a loyal crew,” he said. “I’ll keep the doors open and that will cover payroll, and then it will be how much of a loss I’ll take.”
He added, “You can plan for a lot of things, but you can’t plan for a pandemic.”
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Anonymous
June 17, 2020
Our Gov has little to NO IDEA how her policies (i.e. lack of practical business experience) are killing Maine's businesses, despite very low numbers of serious illnesses and hospitalizations (especially in Hancock County). Public service folks have never missed a paycheck or put everything on the line for a business loan. Ben & Bill's is such a great business, and this is such a sad business story.
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