A Small Business Challenge: Our Ongoing Air Conditioning Journey
If you've visited our social media pages recently, you've probably seen several updates regarding the air conditioning issues we've been experiencing at CrazyKooky Candles.
To be honest, this wasn't a post I ever wanted to write.
As a small business owner, you spend years building something you love, and you never expect an air conditioning system to become one of your biggest challenges. Unfortunately, that's exactly where we've found ourselves over the last several weeks.
Our main HVAC unit began having issues earlier this spring. After multiple service calls, the system was recharged with Freon and appeared to be working again. Unfortunately, within about a week, the Freon had completely depleted, leaving us right back where we started.
Since then, we've spent countless hours working with HVAC technicians, exploring repair options, getting estimates, and trying temporary solutions to keep the building comfortable. While one side of the building still has cooling, the other side has remained extremely hot, often reaching temperatures between 85 and 90 degrees with high humidity.
We've tried portable air conditioners, dehumidifiers, rearranging inventory, and every reasonable short-term solution we could think of. Our candles, wax melts, and products have been moved to the cooler side of the building to help protect them from the heat.
As temperatures continue to rise, it became clear that staying open under normal business hours wasn't the best experience for our customers, our products, or anyone working inside the shop. Making the decision to temporarily close our storefront was incredibly difficult, but it was the responsible choice.
The good news? We recently received some encouraging news from our HVAC team. At one point, we were told the unit could not be repaired due to its age. More recently, we've been informed that replacement parts may actually be available, giving us hope that repairs could still be possible without replacing the entire system.
We're cautiously optimistic.
If everything goes as planned, we'll know more soon and hopefully be able to reopen before many of our upcoming events and activities would normally resume. We should have additional updates in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, CrazyKooky Candles is still very much open online. We're continuing to process website orders, local pickups, and deliveries whenever possible. Most orders are ready within 24 hours, and we're happy to coordinate pickup times with our customers.
This experience has been a reminder of both the challenges and blessings that come with owning a small business. While unexpected expenses and setbacks can be overwhelming, the support we've received from our community has been incredible. Every message, comment, order, share, and word of encouragement has meant more than you know.
Thank you for sticking with us during this unexpected chapter.
We aren't going anywhere.
We're simply working through a bump in the road, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back into the shop as soon as possible.
—CrazyKooky Candles Family
