{"id":1461,"date":"2011-02-21T09:54:49","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T14:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2017-11-19T17:40:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T22:40:12","slug":"crawling-through-the-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=1461","title":{"rendered":"Crawling through the market"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s crawling through the city of Ottawa, and spreading at an alarming rate. <\/span><\/p>\n

The pub crawl\u2014a half-day drinking event where teams of participants travel to six bars in the Byward Market between the hours of five and ten o\u2019clock, competing in various games and activities. All it will cost you is $10, and that includes a team t-shirt, no cover to any of the participating bars, and discounted drinks.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon, which is most popular among university students, has grown significantly over the last three years. Graeme Owens and Joel Schuurman are fourth-year students at Carleton University, who have organized seven pub crawls. Owens says the first event three years ago attracted 48 people. Their most recent\u2014dubbed \u201cHometown Throwdown\u201d\u2014took place on Jan. 29, with more than 600 crawlers. Owens says the event is simple to organize because it essentially promotes itself when approaching bar owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the easiest pitch in the world,\u201d says Owens.\u00a0 \u201cWe can guarantee 120 drinks for an hour for four hours when they\u2019re not even going to be open. How does that sound? Great.\u201d<\/p>\n

It increases revenue because we\u2019re open five hours earlier. Starting that much earlier, you\u2019re going to move more alcohol.<\/p>\n

Owens and Schuurman, operating under the business name Legatto Sales & Marketing, work exclusively with the York Street Entertainment Group, which owns and operates 14 bars and restaurants in Ottawa\u2019s Byward Market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those bars are fully open to us,\u201d says Owens.\u00a0 \u201cWe go to the head of the group and all the information gets filtered down to the managers.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those bars is The Great Canadian Cabin, which is frequently the start and end point of the pub crawl. All participants are encouraged to go back to the Cabin after finishing up all rounds of play at other bars, and can enter without paying cover.<\/p>\n

Jason Desjardins, a manager at Cabin, says these events help take the pressure off bar staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pub crawl offers no cover, or drink deals, something like that,\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cAnd [the organizers] take the promotions and fill the bar for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us, if you will, a free night to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desjardins says hosting a pub crawl is not only advantageous for marketing, it\u2019s just good business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt increases revenue because we\u2019re open five hours earlier. Starting that much earlier, you\u2019re going to move more alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desjardins adds that there are other groups that run pub crawls, such as varsity athletics teams, but the early start time, is what sets Legatto\u2019s apart.<\/p>\n

Challenges and Triumphs<\/p>\n

Owens says, it wasn\u2019t so simple when they were just starting out.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially it was really hard to get bars on board because they didn\u2019t really know us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now, they face the opposite problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running out of bars to put people in, that\u2019s the biggest obstacle facing us,\u201d says Owens.\u00a0 \u201cI think right now the number is pretty safe, but I think we\u2019re going to start to try and grow it some more.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re great because my friends from home come to town to participate. <\/strong>It\u2019s become a tradition for my friends and I as a way to reunite<\/p>\n

Owens acknowledges that he and Schuurman could charge more per person for a pub crawl, but they don\u2019t want to rip off their loyal customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to make a huge profit because they\u2019re our friends at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as the market for this type of event grows, that could change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s grown outside of our circle so it has crossed our minds a couple of times,\u201d says Owens.<\/p>\n

Owens says most of the $10 admission covers costs, with about 60 per cent of that for t-shirts. The rest pays for paperwork, prizes and other general costs, with Owens and Schuurman pocketing any leftovers. This usually works out to about $2-3 per person. Meaning a pub crawl with over 600 players will net the duo a profit of between $1,500 and $2,000.<\/p>\n

As for the participants themselves, they\u2019re pleased with the service offered by Owens and Schuurman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re great because my friends from home come to town to participate,\u201d says Dominic Fegan, a fourth-year marketing student at Carleton. \u201cIt\u2019s become a tradition for my friends and I as a way to reunite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fegan has participated in four pub crawls. He says he spends an average of $80 per pub crawl.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be a bit pricey for one night, but the experience itself is worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future of crawling<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Legatto Sales & Marketing? Owens says they are trying to register the business officially. This would involve obtaining a proper tax revenue number, and allow the group to make purchases at wholesale prices, dramatically lowering costs.<\/p>\n

It would be nice to get successors to keep it alive, but in the mean time, we want to keep it rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest cost is the t-shirt, and that\u2019s huge,\u201d says Owens. \u201cIf we can halve that, then we\u2019re doubling our profit. It\u2019s not that simple though, there\u2019s a lot of red tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens and Schuurman are also looking for successors, since both will be graduating from university.\u00a0 Owens says growing numbers will influence their decision to stay involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were worried this year that because we, and most of our friends, are leaving school that participation would decrease,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we actually grew this year. It would be nice to get successors to keep it alive, but in the mean time, we want to keep it rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens says the fact that it\u2019s only a twice-a-year event would make continued involvement in some capacity easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to find two new people to learn the ropes and try to get a cut of every pub crawl they do, and get their friends involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

It appears the sky is the limit for this entrepreneurial duo. As some students graduate, others take their place, keeping the business and the pub crawls alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s crawling through the city of Ottawa, and spreading at an alarming rate. The pub crawl\u2014a half-day drinking event where<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol-in-ottawa-2011","category-news","tag-matthew-di-nicolantonio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4371,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions\/4371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}