This week Al visits Charlottetown, PEI and Ash Mehndiratta, owner of Strikers Den, a one-of-a-kind family entertainment centre and game store. Featuring unique worldly dexterity tabletop Games such as: Sjolbak (AKA Dutch Shuffleboard); or Novuss (aka Baltic Billiards); or Klask, a popular game from Denmark; and yes, he even has the classic Canadian game of Crokinole. These games, and many more are all available to play in Ash’s store. He also has an impressive selection of board games from around the world for purchase. Listen to the story of why Ash and his wife left careers in IT and corporate training to open this unique business in downtown Charlottetown.
You can learn more about Strikers Den at strikersden.ca.
Check out Ash's History book "India And Faraway Lands".
Al Grego:
Hello everyone, I'm Al Grego, and this is the Yes, We Are Open podcast.
Today, I'm in blustery Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Now, hopefully this is all the bad weather we're getting from the remnants of Hurricane Lee. So far, all I've experienced is a bit of rain and some strong gusts of wind, but nothing to write home about. I'm very concerned that my flight back to Toronto tomorrow will be canceled, but so far it's showing as running on schedule. I drove here from Dartmouth yesterday to stay ahead of the storm, although you wouldn't know it by the weather. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny and warm day, the perfect weather to cross the Confederation Bridge connecting New Brunswick to PEI. The bridge is the longest in Canada at 12.9 kilometers and the world's longest bridge over ice covered water. It opened in 1997, construction took four years and cost 1.3 billion dollars, kind of seems like a bargain by today's standards.
Charlottetown is, of course, the capital of Prince Edward Island, founded in 1764 and named after Queen Charlotte. It was incorporated as a city in 1855. In 1864, it was a site of the famous Charlottetown Conference, the first gathering of Canadian and maritime statesmen to discuss the Maritime Union. But that eventually led to the union of the British North American colonies in 1867 and Canadian Confederation. Despite their integral role, Prince Edward Island didn't join until five years later, in 1873, but it's still known as the Birthplace of Confederation. Today, the population of Charlottetown is approximately 40,000, making it the largest city in the small province. I got in yesterday afternoon in time to record another story for the podcast. You'll hear that one in a couple of weeks.
The plan today was to hunker down in my hotel room and wait out the storm. I got my storm chips, thanks to more than one tip I received from friends online. But again, nothing too serious happened, so I got tired of waiting. As Jason Weickert from Torpedo Rays put it, I got shackey wack, so I went for a walk downtown, making sure I stayed close to the hotel. Some places of business were closed in anticipation of the storm, but most remained open. The locals didn't seem too worried, so that eased my concern. One place of business that was open really piqued my interest, and it turned out they were a Moneris Merchant, so I seized the opportunity for one final story for my trip. I ran back to my hotel room to get my recording gear, and then returned so I could tell the story of Strikers Den.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Ash.
Speaker 3:
Hey [inaudible 00:02:51].
Ash Mehndiratta:
Hi.
Speaker 3:
Hey, welcome to [inaudible 00:02:53].
Ash Mehndiratta:
Thank you.
Speaker 3:
Nice to meet you.
Al Grego:
That's Ash, the owner. He gives me a tour of his store, which is filled with really cool looking tabletop games, but they're not your standard games. There is a foosball table, a tabletop hockey game, and a crokinole board, but that's where the familiarity ends. The other games all look similar to billiards, shuffleboard, or crokinole, but they've got names like Novus and Carrum, or Clask. Ash takes me around to each game and gives me the story of the game's country of origin and history.
Ash Mehndiratta:
And these are dexterity games from different parts of the world.
Al Grego:
Okay.
Ash Mehndiratta:
I got games from all over, from Denmark, from Holland, from Latvia, Estonia.
Al Grego:
This looks almost like a crokinole board.
Ash Mehndiratta:
You could say it's a cross between crokinole and pool.
Al Grego:
Okay.
Ash Mehndiratta:
So instead of shooting balls, you're shooting wooden pucks.
Al Grego:
Some have a direct lineage to games we're familiar with in North America, while others are just curious mysteries. Well, to me anyway. Ash's enthusiasm about the history of these games is contagious, and as you'll hear in his interview, he comes by this enthusiasm honestly. So after my tour of his store, Ash and I sit down at a table. There's a Sequence board between us, so we take advantage of the quiet, stormy afternoon and settle in for a game. Oh, and his interview.
Ash Mehndiratta:
My full name is Ashertosh Mehndiratta, friends call me Ash. I own Strikers Den, and we opened about five months ago.
Al Grego:
Five months, okay.
Ash Mehndiratta:
So fairly new. On April 1st this year, 2023-
Al Grego:
April Fools, okay.
Ash Mehndiratta:
... is when we opened.
Al Grego:
Are you originally from PEI?
Ash Mehndiratta:
No, I am originally from India. I was born and raised in New Delhi, and I worked in the IT industry for 20 plus years, and I traveled, for work and personal travel, to the US. I spent 11 years in the US before.
Al Grego:
Okay.
Ash Mehndiratta:
We lived in New Zealand for three years, and finally moved to Canada last year.
Al Grego:
What made you pick PEI?
Ash Mehndiratta:
We have a few friends in Canada, different parts of Canada, in Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax. And after having worked for 20 plus years in IT, and my wife also worked in corporate training for many years, we wanted to slow down things a bit, getting burnt out, especially the late night working and the escalation calls.
Al Grego:
So, was your wife in IT as well?
Ash Mehndiratta:
She worked in corporate training. She started as a school teacher, so she did a couple of years of teaching, and then moved into corporate training. We wanted to move into a smaller town, smaller place, away from the traffic jams and have a better work-life balance. We enjoyed playing games, but I never thought that one day we could open a business.
Al Grego:
Sure.
Ash Mehndiratta:
And we thought, hey, why not? Slow down things, have a small business.
Al Grego:
Did you already have the idea for the business when you moved here?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yes, we did. We actually moved here on something called an Entrepreneur Visa program that's offered by PEI immigration. The way it works is they look for individuals who plan to open a business in PEI. There's a certain financial commitment that you invest so much business and you hire so many employees, and they help you out. We looked at it and we thought, hey, why not become business owners? My wife still, she joined a company, so she works nearby, and she helps me later in the evening and on the weekends. So one of us continued to work, and I said, "I'll run on the business, and see how it goes."
Al Grego:
Do you have a lot of family still in India?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yes, both my wife and I, we do.
Al Grego:
What do they think of what you're doing here?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Having spent 20 plus years, families have seen both of us working long hours and traveling, and so in a way they're happy that, okay, you're doing things that you enjoy doing. In fact, before opening the business, I took a year long career break to write a history book.
Al Grego:
Oh, wow.
Ash Mehndiratta:
I was intrigued by global history, and while writing the book, I took notes on the different kind of games that were being played around the world.
Al Grego:
So this was always in the back of your head?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Always it was back, but I never thought I'll actually open a business, but then things just fell in place, and here we are. All these games have some kind of a connection. The chess came up in India, and from there, sixth or seventh century went to Iran or Persia, and from Persia, a few centuries later, it reached Europe. Just like languages, the games modify as they travel a few thousand miles, in different cultures, but the genesis remains the same.
We have games from Egypt, from China, ancient games we have from Greece, India, games like Penti or Go, and a game called Mount Kala that's played in Africa. I found a person in the US, he makes handcrafted replicas of ancient games, so I'm getting a whole bunch of games with names like Senet. It's a very old Egyptian game, old as in, from 2000 BC. That old.
Al Grego:
When you first opened, how were you received?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Well, it is easy to get noticed. It's a small town, so it's hard for people to not notice. We did a bit of radio advertising, that helped because-
Al Grego:
You're right next door to the radio station.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yeah, they're next door, they just popped in and they said, "Hey, we could do this." And sometimes they offered us free advertising, as well, on the radio, because the island is small, but still some parts can be two or three hour drive from Charlottetown.
Al Grego:
Yeah, there's still some remote areas.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Remote areas, and those people often come to Charlottetown on the weekends, so we had to get the word out to the far end corners of the island, and even New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. Radio advertising is what helped us. Then we did, there's a newspaper called The Buzz, that's quite popular in town, coffee news. We got flyers posted at Tourism PEI offices. So when you enter the island from Borden-Carleton, you should find our flyer in the rack of flyers there, and so on and so forth.
Al Grego:
So actually, pretty traditional advertising plan, right?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
Radio, print.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Print, radio, and of course social media, Facebook and Instagram.
The moment June and July arrived, the town was filled with tourists from all over the world.
Al Grego:
Yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
We'd have people walk in, tourists from Germany, from Switzerland, from all over the US, Mexico, China, Vietnam. You name a country, and there were people walking in, and they were happy to see games from their part of the world, and then they also wanted to learn about games from different parts of the world.
Al Grego:
You sell them here, obviously. Do you sell any of them online as well?
Ash Mehndiratta:
I haven't started online as yet. I just wanted to see how the response is.
Al Grego:
Sure.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Because I noticed the shipping cost in Canada can be high.
Al Grego:
Yeah. Well, especially if you're on an island.
Ash Mehndiratta:
On an island like this, and adding the shipping would make it, I wasn't sure how much, how buyers would perceive that. So far, I've enjoyed people walking in and building relation with them, whether it's tourists or locals.
Al Grego:
What's the college that's near you [inaudible 00:10:32]?
Ash Mehndiratta:
There's Holland College, and there's the UPEI, University of PEI.
Al Grego:
So, do you get a lot of students in here?
Ash Mehndiratta:
I get a lot of students later in the evening. So after six, seven, that's when students, and Fridays and Saturdays I'll get more students. Definitely.
Al Grego:
Is this is your first time here?
Speaker 4:
It's my second time here. I've been here once before.
Al Grego:
And you're playing this game, Novus. I mean, how did you know how to play this game?
Speaker 4:
The first time we came here, he graciously showed us how to play most of the games here, which was pretty awesome.
Al Grego:
Are you students here at the college?
Speaker 4:
I've just done in my year at the college.
Speaker 5:
I'm in school right now.
Al Grego:
So is this a place you see yourself coming to often?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, no, it's a great atmosphere. I really like it here, definitely going to come back a lot more.
Al Grego:
And what do you think of this place?
Speaker 5:
Games are pretty fun.
Speaker 4:
Yeah.
Al Grego:
Can you explain maybe what the game is here?
Speaker 5:
It's sort of like pool, there's little red and black circles of wood that you put in the middle of this table, and you have a bigger puck that you have to use to hit them into the four holes in each of the corners.
Al Grego:
And who's winning right now? I can't tell.
Speaker 4:
I think I'm winning. Carry on.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Supporting local business is a very strong feeling in PEI, as it would be in any small community, so definitely people have encouraged, and yes, there's a very good spirit of that.
Even the mayor of the city, he has walked in, and which came as a surprise. In a place like India, you'd not get a political leader just walk in and say hello.
Al Grego:
Yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
In fact, a few weeks ago we had the Pride parade in town, and I was standing outside my shop. There was a big crowd and parade was going, and a young gentleman walked in from the parade. He looked familiar. It was the Prime Minister.
Al Grego:
It was-
Ash Mehndiratta:
It was Justin Trudeau.
Al Grego:
Justin Trudeau.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yeah, you know how it happens sometimes, you see celebrities on TV, and I know him, and my wife is running, and what's happening? I shook hands with him, oh, this is the Prime Minister? I'm like, "Oh, wow." He was a very nice guy, and looked a lot younger than even what he seems on TV.
Al Grego:
Yeah, well, the camera adds 20 years to you.
Ash Mehndiratta:
It's been interesting experiences.
Al Grego:
I mean, what do you tell your family at home? You say, "The Prime Minister walked into my business."
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yeah. He walked in, and he's shaking hands.
There's a lot of pent-up desire to do activities which are social, and during the pandemic, people picked up the hobbies of board games.
Al Grego:
Right.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Board games sort of made a comeback during the pandemic.
Al Grego:
Yeah, they did, you're right, yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
And now people are almost having a withdrawal symptom because they're missing the family get togethers, or the time this family was spending.
Al Grego:
Right.
Ash Mehndiratta:
I'm having people walk in and asking more for party games, and games that can be played with six or even 10 plus people-
Al Grego:
Right, right.
Ash Mehndiratta:
... and people are hosting those get togethers. The pandemic had a positive effect on this indoor gaming culture. And even though the pandemic is over, that habit has stayed, and people are spending more time together.
Al Grego:
Up next, after a successful launch in a busy summer, Strikers Den seems to be doing great in its first few months. But the tourism season on the island is short, and the true test will be how Strikers Den makes it through the off season. Will the local support be enough? Stay tuned to find out.
You are listening to Yes, We Are Open. Ash Mehndiratta and his wife moved to Canada a year ago to start their own business. They chose Charlottetown as their new home, with hopes of becoming part of the local business community. They've had a great start with lots of support, but now that the tourism season is coming to an end, how would they manage? Let's find out.
I mean, you've only been open, what's that?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Five months. Five and a half months.
Al Grego:
So, struggles. Opening a new business, obviously there's going to be struggles, but what would you say has been your biggest struggle?
Ash Mehndiratta:
A store like this, whether you call it a hobby store or a specialty retail, of course it attracts a lot of onlookers, and a lot of curious eyes, people walking. But converting curious people into buyers, that's the biggest challenge.
Al Grego:
Yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
End of the day, it is not a museum, it's a for-profit business. I have rent to pay, utilities, so I have to make sure that I do not get caught by just the hook, or just having curious items like a cabinet of curiosity. It should be a place that people are actually spending time and spending money.
Al Grego:
Spending money, yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
That's the hard part, and the way I got from that was identifying what games to sell, and what price points to sell. On an impulse, somebody could spend 20 to 40, 50 bucks, but if you have games which cost more than a hundred dollars, the impulse buys are not going to spend a hundred dollars.
Al Grego:
Right.
Ash Mehndiratta:
So finding the right price points, and the right games. Initially, I kept all games which are the top of the line, which are very prominent in gaming community, but I forgot that Monopoly and Scrabble, Bananagrams, the person on the street wants to buy a Scrabble, and playing cards, and a set of dice, so you've got to have that as well.
Al Grego:
Right.
Ash Mehndiratta:
There's a family here in Charlottetown, they make cribbage boards, which says I Love PEI, PEI shaped.
Al Grego:
Cribbage is a big game.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Cribbage is a big game, so I'm getting some boards made from them. Even a game like Celtic Chess, a lot of people here in the region have Celtic ancestry, they associate with a symbolic game like that.
Al Grego:
Yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
People buy for multiple reasons. Keeping the commercial viability on the back of your mind is the biggest challenge. Just compliments are great, it feels great. Every day, 50 people walk in and say, "You've got a lovely store."
Al Grego:
But you can't pay the rent with compliments.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yeah, but you can't pay the rent with compliments.
So yeah, that's the hard part, figuring out how to make that work. A simple thing like, I assume that when a family with kids walks in, they'd associate this place with hosting a birthday party.
Al Grego:
Okay.
Ash Mehndiratta:
But I learned that unless you tell people that, "Hey, I offer this place for birthday parties as well," people are like, "Huh, that's interesting. I could do that." So as a business owner, you have to put that word in the consumer's head.
Al Grego:
It's not obvious, right?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Not obvious. And I was for some reason, weird reason, I was assuming that they'd see this place and they'd want to host a birthday party here, but I realized you have to tell people that, "Hey, if you want to host a birthday party, this place is on offer."
Al Grego:
A great idea. I didn't even think about it, well, I'm going to admit to you, I came in here and I didn't think it's a birthday party.
Ash Mehndiratta:
So, my bad, on initial months, assuming that people would figure it out on their own. People, all age groups, event hosting is important.
Al Grego:
Yeah, that'll be a big part of your business. Have you done a lot of it this summer so far?
Ash Mehndiratta:
I've done quite a few, summer camps, birthday parties, social events, and I plan to do more of those. Whatever keeps your Moneris system, whatever the chirp that we love, the chirp has to sound every day, and that's what keeps the engine running.
I think the hardest struggle, actually, which I forgot to mention, was finding a commercial place.
Al Grego:
Oh, right. So yeah, how did you come up upon this location?
Ash Mehndiratta:
It took two months of walking streets. I wanted to be in downtown, and downtown Charlottetown is like any downtown, I'm sure in any city in Canada, it's extremely hard to find a commercial space.
Al Grego:
It looks like you've got a great spot here, between the radio station and the cake bakery.
Ash Mehndiratta:
It is still not ideal. The ideal, if you notice, Queen Street is the main street, and Victoria Row is the center of attraction. Ideally, you want to be close to Victoria Row because we get almost 2000 cruise ships in a year.
Al Grego:
Right.
Ash Mehndiratta:
The people from the cruises, they're big spenders, but they don't walk to the other end of town, which is where we are. They want to be near the harbor, so they'll make it a point to have a coffee. Souvenirs sell a lot, and sometimes if they make it here, then they buy games. So, it's not ideal ideal, but still, I'm in downtown, and I do get a lot of tourist traffic. So, finding a commercial place in Charlottetown is next to impossible these days.
Al Grego:
Well, I mean, that's good and bad. I mean, business is doing all right, but also if you're a new business, it's hard to get your foot in the door.
Ash Mehndiratta:
True. The rents are also higher in downtown, but I think it's better to pay a higher rent in downtown, rather than, of course, I could get a much bigger place outside, but then I'll miss out on the pedestrian traffic and the residents of all these hotels, and the million tourists that we get in a year.
Al Grego:
Yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
So yeah, finding a place was hard. It just so happened the landlord, we were renting his apartment. He owned several properties, and he happened to own this one as well, and it came up and said, "Hey." We just jumped in and then we took it.
Al Grego:
It's a nice space.
Ash Mehndiratta:
It's a nice space. This used to be owned by a company called David's Tea, earlier. It's a popular tea chain. So thanks to some of their initial investment, on the lights, and we did do a bit of retrofitting, and we managed to get the place going.
Look, a business like this, there's going to be good days, and there's going to be quiet days. So, if you get two quiet days in a row, to be honest, you have to motivate yourself to like, "Hey, am I doing the right thing? Am I wasting my time just sitting here?" And then third day, suddenly, you get a whole bunch of, your sales are far better than expected. I learned to look at numbers on a monthly basis, never look at on a daily basis, because every day will be a rollercoaster.
Al Grego:
Is there anything that Moneris has done to help you with starting this business and getting it going?
Ash Mehndiratta:
I'd say just the ease of support. I think the online and the customer support and the sales. The lady who, she was based in Nova Scotia, and just the advice from her, and just the overall, the equipment is top-notch. And the overall experience, the cash transfer, the funds transfer, is instant. So overall, yeah, the satisfaction index is very high.
Al Grego:
Okay.
Coming up after the break, we found out what the future holds for Strikers Den.
Speaker 6:
Success in business doesn't come without moments of struggle, the moments when you had to face your challenges head on. As the proud partner of Canadian business, Moneris plays a critical role in empowering businesses with the payment processing tools they need to succeed. Together, we are building stronger businesses, where business owners everywhere can stand up to their challenges without slowing down. Moneris, proud partner of Canadian business.
Al Grego:
Welcome back to Yes, We Are Open. Ash Mehndiratta hopes that he has positioned Strikers Den to continue to grow through the winter season and into next year's busy tourist season. It might be a little too soon to talk about growth, but what are Ash's hopes and dreams for the future of his business? Let's find out.
Your future outlook. You've been open for five months, so what does the future look like for Strikers Den?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Based on my discussion with other similar business owners, they say the first year, generally, you spend in getting the word out, getting people to know that there's a store like that. And discipline is important, that you have to stay open. I should not be closing the shop at a drop of a hat, if it's going to be bad [inaudible 00:23:28]. Once people know that this store is definitely going to be open, and they will be well-stocked, and they will have what we need, and once that loyal band of customers gets ready, then second year is definitely better. All the effort we are putting in is towards year two, really. But yeah, idea is to definitely grow and do more events, have more revenue streams, start online as well.
Al Grego:
Okay. Yeah.
Ash Mehndiratta:
Online is going to be a big part of the coming months, and with my prior experience, that's an area where I'm strong at.
Al Grego:
If you were to take a fantastical view of the future, what would you like to see? Let's say business booms for the next five years, do you have an ambition for growth? Franchising or something?
Ash Mehndiratta:
If that were to happen, let's say hypothetically, then yes, I don't see why we should not have a franchise like Strikers Den in different cities.
I get a lot of visitors from bigger cities, and they tend to have more appreciation sometimes. They're always wanting for a store like this, people in the US. It was a surprise to me, people from big cities, like New York City, and other big American cities, telling me that they don't find these games when they go to shop for their kids because the US is dominated by the big box, the Targets and Walmarts, and they don't sell anything that won't sell a million copies, so they won't be interested in selling these board games. If you walk into a Canadian Target or Walmart, you'll find the same old Monopoly and Scrabble and Risk and those games. So definitely there's a need, and people are willing to pay a premium. Franchise could be an option, if things were to work out, maybe a partnership, maybe a store in a city like Halifax, or Toronto or Vancouver.
But yeah, the idea is not to stop having fun. We have to enjoy coming to the store as well. There's no price on a family with kids having a great time, and when they walk out saying thank you, and you know the sincerity, and that's priceless, so that's always welcome.
It's a very, very satisfying feeling. The way to judge that is if you work five, six days a week, and seventh day, you still want to go. That's a good sign that you enjoy what you do. In other jobs that I've held, after five days, you're like, "Oh, thank God it's Friday." But here, it doesn't feel like that. I don't see it as work. I see this as fun. I could be here seven days a week, and just the opportunity to meet people from around the world, and hear their stories and their experiences, and you realize that games come very naturally to humans. There's a reason we've been playing for thousands of years, and different board games, different ways of playing a game or different ways of looking at rules, it is just very interesting.
Not many jobs let you meet people from 10 different nationalities in a single day. If you came here in August, you might have seen a family from Mexico, or from Germany, or from India, all just playing, and just different languages, different accents, but they're playing at the same time trying to outdo the record in Shulbar. I think that's a great feeling.
Al Grego:
So, Ash, is Strikers Den open?
Ash Mehndiratta:
Yes, We Are Open.
Al Grego:
Perfect.
That's the story of Strikers Den. Last week in our story of Anine, I talked about the power of storytelling and sales. We have the same in today's story. Ash's exuberance of world history, and how the evolution of the games we play can be traced throughout that history is fascinating. I could have spent the entire afternoon in that place, and actually I did, which is why I like Ash's chances of success here. He's not just selling games, he's selling history.
Strikers Den is the perfect marriage of Ash's two passions, history and gaming, and we all know when your work is also your passion, then it isn't really work. You can tell Ash loves his work. That's why I found him in his empty store during threat of a hurricane. No one would've blamed him if he had taken the day off, many others did. But had he taken the day off, I wouldn't have met him and told his story. So I, for one, am glad he went to work that day, and so are the other patrons who showed up later that afternoon.
Which reminds me, if you're curious about who won our game of Sequence, it was me, but I think Ash was being a gracious host, a much more gracious than this host.
Yes, We Are Open as a Moneris Podcast Production. I'd like to thank Ash for taking the time to share his story. You can learn more about Strikers Den at strikersden.ca, follow them on Facebook at Strikers Den, and on Instagram, they're @strikers.den.
Please support this podcast by writing a review on Apple Podcasts, or rate us on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're a Canadian small business owner or know of one with an interesting story of perseverance to tell, I'd love to help tell it. You can contact me at podcastatmoneris.com.
Tune in next week for another story of small business struggle and survival on the Yes, We are Open podcast. I'm Al Grego, thank you for listening.