While many people's biggest gripe with the Saskatchewan Avenue West restoration project is the fact that traffic is slowed down, some business owners in the city are feeling the effects more seriously.

Rhonda Lodwick, the owner of What's the Scoop, says the construction had been sitting outside her storefront for two months. While that may not be the worst thing on its own, It was the first two months of the year the shop was open.

"It was definitely frustrating because the customers had very limited access to the building," explains Lodwick. "Our first two months of the season, which are usually our busy months were quite slow and it gets frustrating for (customers) trying to get to us." 

She adds, that when people don't have the means to get to the store, they might go find alternate places to get their ice cream, which can lead to issues as those customers might not come back. Lodwick notes it hits them especially hard since What's the Scoop can only operate in the summer months.

Luckily for her, however, her business has some very loyal customers.

"Thank goodness we have fantastic customers that you know they just keep on coming regardless of where they had to park or where they had to walk from."

While she knows the city will benefit in the long term from the project, Lodwick hopes that customers try to get out in the community and support businesses that may be having a worse year than expected due to the construction.