Some P.E.I. businesses boom while others bust during Week 1 of Canada Games
CBC
Some businesses on P.E.I. are enjoying the benefits of having thousands of people on P.E.I. for the Canada Winter Games in the middle of winter. But others say they've seen "zero impact," even though they hired extra staff.
The P.E.I. school system is having March Break during the Games, and that means some Islanders have headed off on vacation.
One of the businesses that has seen an increase in traffic is Hojo's Sushi Burrito. It's located in Founder's Hall, a destination for a lot of Canada Games-related activities.
Roshika Shrestha from Hojo's said they have had two people preparing food.
"I don't think one person ... would be able to handle all the customers with the rush and everything," she said.
Shrestha said typically on a Friday, they get between 10 and 15 orders. But during Week 1 of Games, they had triple that number.
"In the evening also it has gotten busier. In evening I see so many volunteers of Canada Games coming in."
It's the same at The Gallery, a café in downtown Charlottetown.
Co-owner Jessica Fritz said since the start of the Games, there have been more people coming in for a cup.
In fact, they've extended the café's hours to accommodate the increase.
Fritz says it's a much different scene than a year ago.
"Major change. I mean we were also in some sort of COVID-induced lockdown, but this winter has been better already winter-wise and definitely we have more people around," she said.
At Hive and Honeycomb, a pottery-painting café and board game lounge in downtown Charlottetown, assistant manager Chris Melanson said they've been disappointed.
"We overstaffed, overstocked our inventory with a lot of buildup from the Games anticipating that it was gonna be 'bananatown' as my wife would say and unfortunately we've seen zero impact economically from these Games so far," he said.