To our community –
This has been a confusing time for many of us. On our end, we’ve spent the past two weeks trying to figure out what we need to do as business owners and members of our community to adapt to this sudden change and help in whatever way we can.
When the Philippine government announced a city-wide lockdown last March 14, we suspended operations across our three stores, warehouse, and our webstore to ensure everyone’s safety. Since then, we’ve spent time exploring all possibilities that help ensure that everyone in the company can be supported during this time, and continuing efforts to make sure our people have work to return to when this is all over. There’s no playbook for an uncertain time like this, but we are committed to doing all we can to stay together even if we’re physically apart.
We opened in Manila in 2014 with hopes of becoming your neighborhood shop that provides you with the best curation of product, service, and a sense of community. It’s hard to know what we should be communicating to you at this moment but what we do know is this — small and independent businesses will suffer, and some may cease to exist. So now more than ever, we need to find ways to support each other responsibly. If you are able to, we encourage you to support the independent brands, restaurants, and shops you know and love during this tough time in whatever way you can.
Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out new features and programs on our channels that are in line with necessary social distancing measures. We will be launching a new online raffle system for our special releases with a delivery service, exploring visual showrooms and phone-in orders, and creating engaging content to connect with our community with stories and ideas that will hopefully entertain you and give you hope.
We are incredibly awed and inspired by the men and women on the front lines who brave their lives everyday for our nation and we are speaking with relevant organizations on ways we can help. In the meanwhile, we will continue to operate in the best way we can, we’ll be refocusing our efforts and spending more time looking at new ways to meaningfully connect with you. We miss our community and we’re grateful for the opportunities that kept us on this journey, whether it was through you coming into our stores day in and day out, joining us at our events, or simply participating with us online. These moments keep us motivated and excited to continue doing what we do and creating the experiences that you’ve come to love and enjoy.
Stay strong, be safe, and look out for each other.
-- Commonwealth