Cashing in on Olympics is all about location

Margarita Trifonova's hotdog stand, Yummy Hotdogs and Catering, is a year-round fixture on busy Dunsmuir Street in downtown Vancouver, but while the Olympics have been in town, business has boomed.

"[We sell] at least 30 hotdogs an hour," Trifonova said of her business so far during the Games. "Last February, [it] could be maybe two, maybe 10."

Street vendors like Trifonova are licensed by the city but are assigned their locations at random so it was a happy coincidence that her stand turned out to be close to a major transit hub and many popular Olympic spots — including B.C. Place, where the opening and closing ceremonies are held, Canada Hockey Place and the LiveCity entertainment venue.

'It's just dead'

Mario Loscerbo thought his ice-cream parlour, Mario's Gelati, located a stone's throw from the Olympic Village and near public transport, would be a similarly prime spot for Olympic traffic.

But Loscerbo says his business, which is in a four-storey building at East First Avenue and Quebec Street, has all but shut down.

"These days, [customers] are like a rare butterfly," Loscerbo says. "[The area] is like a ghost town. This area should be buzzing with people, but it's just dead."

He blames the heavy security perimeter surrounding the Olympic Village, a two-layer barricade of cement blocks and blue fencing that stands over three metres high, cutting off his store from the sidewalk on three sides.

The only pedestrian access point to the ice cream shop is an alleyway between Loscerbo's building and an adjacent abandoned warehouse. A sign erected by the city points the way.

But Jonathan Bezuidenhout, one of a handful of regulars who continues to make it to the shop, doesn't think the sign is effective.

"The sign is really tiny … and the [security] gate is right there, so it's rather intimidating," he said. "When you look down the alley, you don't think you can get here."

Loscerbo said his sales are down $1 million since September. He also lost money when several offers from Olympic officials to rent the ballroom on his building's top floor for events during the Games fell through.

Loscerbo says he has no choice but to sue the city and the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, to recoup some of those losses.

A spokeswoman for the Vancouver mayor's office refused to comment on Loscerbo's complaint or potential legal action. VANOC officials were unavailable for comment.

Downtown vendors strike gold

Suki Sadhre has had a more positive Olympic experience.

Sadhre runs Van City Sports, a cramped, 550-square-foot sports paraphernalia shop at Georgia and Seymour streets in the heart of Vancouver's downtown.

Map: Vancouver vendors

See where the businesses in this story are located throughout the city's downtown core.

It's just blocks from B.C. Place and Canada Hockey Place. Thousands of Olympic visitors file past his store each day.

His staple products are officially licensed hockey jerseys, which are hot commodities during the Games.

"Team Canada merchandise is flying off the shelves," Sadhre said, estimating that sales have doubled or tripled since the Games began.

Sadhre is selling about 100 jerseys a day – for as much as $230 a piece, he said.

"Even [the CBC's] Peter Mansbridge bought … [a Jarome] Iginla jersey for his son," Sadhre said.

Across the street, the lineup at the Bay's Olympic superstore wound around the block Sunday. The hottest item: the ubiquitous red mittens with the Olympic rings and "Vancouver 2010" stitched in white on the back and a white maple leaf logo on the palm.

Dennis Kim, marketing director for the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, says the initial plan was to sell one million pairs of the mitts. As of Tuesday, 2.6 million pairs had been sold, with another 700,000 expected to move off shelves by the end of the Games.

Souvenir business also brisk

Dave Wolsey runs One Star Souvenir, a tent displaying hats, toques, sweaters, flags, pins and other souvenir stand staples. The merchandise does not resemble the official Olympic goods, but that hasn't stopped people from buying it, Wolsey said.

"People just want something with a maple leaf on it," he said. "Something to remember Canada by."

Wolsey's stand is located less than 100 metres from the back side of B.C. Place on Beatty Street, which is closed to car traffic to allow pedestrians access to the LiveCity site. Venues like Alberta House, Manitoba House and Haida Gwaii House, three of the official host pavilions, surround the gift stand.

Wolsey, a Vancouver native who runs an internet business selling health products, said he couldn't miss the opportunity to be a part of the Games.

He did not want to say how much his souvenir tent has made since the Games opened Friday, but he did say it was enough to make his venture well worth it.

Just across the street, Hamir Bensal, owner of a coffee shop located within the YWCA, says sales of coffee have been steady, but there haven't been any huge lineups or dramatic increases in sales since the Games began.

To offset that, Bensal began selling flags of some of the countries participating in the Games and has managed to unload between 100 and 150 a day.

"The flags seem to be making everybody happy," Bensal said.

But the same cannot be said of another change Bensal made during the Olympics that disgruntled his regular customers.

"We raised [the price of] coffee by 25 cents," he said. "We were supposed to do it in January, but we waited until the Olympics."

Hooray for hockey: bar owner

Two blocks north of Bensal's coffee shop, Ron Macgillivray, general manager of the Kingston Tap House and Grill, says business is generally up but is dependant on what Olympic events are happening.

He said Sunday was a "bronze medal day" for the eatery and pub, with 20 or 30 per cent of patrons coming in either on their way to or from the medal ceremonies across the street at B.C. Place.

Macgillivray is expecting Tuesday to be a gold medal day as the puck drops at Canada Hockey Place for the preliminary round of the men's hockey competition.

"There will be two games, so we'll have people coming all day," he says. "Everyone wants to come in and watch Canada play."

Map: Where the businesses are