Thousands of volunteers and tourists poured through Squamish during the 2010 Olympic Games, but it seems only a few local entrepreneurs managed to leverage any business.
With a 50 to 75 per cent rise in food and beverage sales compared to last February, one of the busiest locations in town from Feb. 12 to 28 might have been the Howe Sound Brew Pub and Inn.
"It was fairly substantial for us. Our hotel was all booked out by [the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee] VANOC and we saw a lot of food and beverage revenue," said general manager Trevor McGee.
"A big chunk of it was from the cruise ship that's docked in port with VANOC volunteers and security personnel, as we were probably the closest food and beverage location to them, within walking distance for them."
President of the downtown Business Improvement Association (BIA) Eric Armour said volunteers' location seems to have been key in downtown businesses flourishing.
"It's unfortunate that the district and VANOC couldn't have worked out something that the bus thing was not at Wal Mart but was let's say closer to downtown, or closer to a business hub that isn't highway development," said Armour.
He also noted even though the Mona Lisa cruise ship and its 1,400 personnel are close to downtown, he's heard it's tough to get through security and into downtown.
"I know a lot of people on that boat are calling it Alcatraz and that's not people in Squamish, that's people on the boat calling it that because it's so tricky to get off," he said.
In regards to his own business, the Trinity Romance Shop on Second Avenue, Armour said his business is down by about 25 per cent in comparison to last February, but that's mostly because the Games over-shadowed the boutique's biggest selling holiday - Valentine's Day.
Gelato Carina owner Gregory Fischer said he increased the amount of staff and the hours of operation for his Cleveland Avenue eatery, but none of it was necessary. Even though his business earned a bit more than February of last year, Fischer is still disappointed.
"The volunteers and the workers that were promised to us have arrived but they are stuck on the ship," he said.
"I'm not going to point fingers. If I work 12 hours I want to go home and sleep too. It's not anything personal here but we were led to believe that 'Oh, the ship is coming, there's 1,400 people there, 300 up at Quest and 80 at the Renaissance,' sowe were planning for more people but it just didn't happen."
Even though Wal Mart seemed to the a hub of volunteer activity in town over the last month, store manager Farid Fazeli said the store broke even in terms of sales. Even with a 30 per cent increase in foot traffic, the average purchase was lower, so revenue was down.
"They weren't buying big screen TVs," he said.
And the 30 additional employees hired to keep the store open 24 hours a day hindered the bottom line.
"Financially, it really didn't make a difference for us because we ended up spending more than we wanted as well," he said.
Fazeli didn't seem phased about not earning more because he said the entire experience was generally fun for the store employees. But there was a handful of negative experience.
"During the night I know we had a lot of drunk VANOC people coming in here, we had to call the cops on them a few times [because] they were causing trouble."
The store also saw a five per cent spike in shop lifting during the Games, and according to Fazeli all of the apprehended culprits were from Squamish, not tourists, visitors or volunteers.
Squamish Kal Tire owner Art Tichauer said the bus parking lot across from his shop generated business, but didn't generate greater revenue.
"I'd say some of our after hour work was up but I'd say our business as a whole was down."
Tichauer said he expects poor weather would have drummed up better business.
"If it was inclement weather, like snow on the road, then it would have been [up]. The buses that came up were designed for Arizona and California weather and we had Arizona and California weather."
