As a small neighborhood candy shop that caters heavily to foot traffic from the surrounding community, co-owner Stacy Holland says COVID-19 has been "rough" on Lolly by Golly Sweet Shoppe.

"We couldn't have people in here," Holland says. "We couldn't serve ice cream. ... But as much as we could, we got creative."

That started as soon as state restrictions closed the Dearborn store's doors to the public in mid-March. Holland says one of the pandemic's earliest effects was giving her and her sister and co-owner Nicole Cornett "a kick in the pants" to launch their first website since they opened Lolly by Golly nearly six years ago.

"We always said we were going to and we just never got around to it, but it was either do it or not survive," Holland says. "... Honestly, I can't believe we didn't do it earlier. That was silly."

The new website enabled Holland and Cornett to begin offering personalized candy baskets for curbside pickup. They first offered that service for Easter, allowing customers to order baskets featuring their child's name and favorite treats. Later, they offered personalized Mother's and Father's Day baskets, as well as graduation buckets for kids graduating kindergarten or elementary school grades.

"That was what saved us," Holland says. "... Our doors were closed, but we had to do something to keep it going."

Things have been somewhat easier, but still slow, since the store reopened its doors to the public this summer. Now Holland and Cornett are adapting to the holiday season – normally their busiest time of year – while also enforcing pandemic safety measures. This year's Small Business Saturday was particularly unusual for them. Small Business Saturday is usually a large celebration, drawing 25-30 people into the shop at any given time that day. But this year, Lolly by Golly took reservations at 10-minute intervals for families to shop and take a picture with Santa (who was behind Plexiglas).

"That was different for us," Holland says. "It was a constant flow, but it was one family in, one family out."

Holland and Cornett are hoping to continue experiencing consistent, if reduced, business for the rest of the holiday season. They're allowing a maximum of six people at a time into the main room of their store, and limiting a separate "Secret Santa Shop" room to one family at a time. Holland emphasizes that Lolly by Golly has always been a small, family-run passion project.

"Let's be honest: We really haven't made too much of a profit over the six years," she says. "Our doors are open and we just squeak by every month."

Holland says the Christmas season usually gets the shop "over the hump" each year, but this year she anticipates it will "just squeak by" as it does most other months. After the holidays, she anticipates having to come up with some sort of promotion to help get the shop through January and March (Valentine's Day helps keep things busy in February).

However, she's not worried about the shop's long-term success – thanks in part to the neighbors who have always been Lolly by Golly's driving force. Holland says the shop's community "has been so amazing in supporting us."

"Even if they didn't have an order to pick up, they would leave us little tips, little thanks, little notes, just to say 'Keep going,'" she says. "It's been really amazing. We wouldn't be able to do it if not for the people that live around the shop."