Fernandina Beach Soapery struggles to meet customer demands with Coronavirus fears

Fernandina Beach, Fla. — The spread of the coronavirus is also impacting small businesses.

Tracy Gunn is the owner of Amelia Island Soapery.

Over the last few weeks she’s had customers flocking to her store to buy soap.

“As we’re selling out of soap, we’re struggling to get the supplies in,” Gunn said.

Gunn told us her business has sold 80% of its stock.

A table at the business is usually filled with soap but right now they’re having trouble keeping up with customer demand because of the coronavirus.​

Some of her soap-making supplies come from a company in Washington, but their delivery has been delayed at least two to three weeks.

And they haven’t been able to find everything they need locally to make more soap.

“We checked Walgreens, CVS, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Publix. We checked every store around the island and there is no alcohol,” Gunn said.

She said not every soap you find inside a store will be able to protect you from the coronavirus.

It needs to have alcohol and glycerin in it in order to have an antibacterial effect.

With more confirmed cases every day, Gunn told us they’re even getting calls from out-of-state customers asking for more soap.​

“One customer in particular, from Minnesota, she went to her local store. It was very bare. The options were small so we’re shipping her soap to Minnesota,” Gunn said.

If supplies do not arrive soon she may be forced to drive to Atlanta or even as far as New York to get what she needs to make more soap.

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