Help Wild Orchid Bakery keep our doors open

Hi everyone, My name is Shelly, 

I’m the owner of WildOrchid Bakery located at 836 Elm Street in Manchester NH.

I’ve reluctantly closed my doors to our amazing customers 3 weeks ago due to unforeseen back to back events. 

I personally had no choice but to pull away from the storefront due to lack of traffic and money to sustain business. During Christmas season due to personal family issues I was unable to support the storefront which ultimately set us back from getting through January 2023. 

It's been challenging trying to maintain staff as well as supply a steady source of specialty products which our storefront relies on due to the ever-increasing price of ingredients for our vegan and gluten-free products. I have fought diligently to avoid increase in our prices to maintain and keep our loyal customers happy but we were limited in what we put out daily due to the high waste of product when the necessary traffic didn't come in. 

 I have been the one handling the business behind the scenes and within the kitchen and have been trying hard to find loyal & reliable staff members. Our main issue when we opened was lack of signage, proper refrigeration and freezers for our products to keep up with demand and to stock products at a stable level.

 It continues to be a setback causing us to lose sales as we can only hold just over a few custom cakes at a time in our back fridge and 4 ready-made cakes in our single refrigerated case.

 To explain further… One of our refrigerated displays shut down a few months ago and our single remaining case is on its last leg as they are over 20 years old and fought through since the previous bakery that was here for over 19 years. 

 Prior to current events I was inflicted with a 3rd degree burn over the Summer to my right hand that took five weeks to fully heal as I went to the burn unit weekly whilst 

working for our devoted customers. 

Unfortunately I had to cut back on custom orders due to the pain whilst not being able to use my dominant hand and that's when the major issues began trying to survive as a small business with a lack of support & resources. It was a challenge then to keep the business open without taking any time off for my hand to heal. 

 We then had roof leaks that put us out of business for a few days for repairs. The chain reaction of events set us back as they continued to pile up being a small business with big dreams.

 I have been applying for emergency loans & grants with much difficulty and no success for the past 8 months.

 I loved seeing Wild Orchid thrive over the first months of opening in 2022 but we had no extra cushioning for staffing and was a survival week to week. I would love to continue to serve the vegan and gluten-free community yet I just cannot afford to refinance the store on my own. 

 I am here to ask for your help one last time prior to ultimately handing over the keys to the business in the next few weeks. The funds will be used to pay our outstanding rent, gas and light bills, new signage and purchase a new refrigerator case, upright freezer, and fryolator to keep up with demand for our custom donuts and to give us enough funds to hire and train new staff to keep the storefront open.

 The rent and overheads have been stacking up since we saw a huge decrease in traffic over the last five months and it's hurt this already struggling business from the last location where we lost everything we had. 

 l've been doing everything in my power to advertise and let everyone know where we are located for the past year with the resources available to me. 

 I pray to keep Wild Orchid’s doors open to the public as I am doing what I can on my end. With a wary outlook to a dire situation for the business, as I do also have to provide for my children and they will always be my main priority and roots to everything that I do. 

 I thank you for your time reading this and hope to keep serving Manchester for years to come if given the chance.