The downtown business community for Estevan keeps growing on a monthly basis.
A new convenience store and coffee shop, called 小蓝视频east Pop Coolture, opened its doors at 1230 Fourth Street on Oct. 24.
Orvil Mahinay said he was thinking about starting his own business for a while, but his original plan was different.
"We wanted to start a coffee shop first, but then we realized that most people would want to just grab something to eat, easy, like snacks, pop, something like that. So I came up with an idea to mix the convenience store with a coffee shop," explained Mahinay.聽
He's been saving some money for a long time. His dream was to open a business and possibly build a resort in the Philippines, where he was born. But the current pandemic put a break on travelling, so Mahinay decided to put money to use here instead.
Besides, he could see a demand for a to-go food and coffee place downtown, and he took it as an opportunity.
Mahinay said that he wanted the name to be catchy and original, so he used the word "pop" as in pop music 鈥� something that everybody listens to at least sometimes, especially during the pandemic when people are spending more time at home. And then he played with the word "culture" adding the "cool" element to it. But there was another gameplay part to the name.
"We also took the word pop because it's similar to pop, like Coke or soda pop. And 鈥榗oolture,鈥� instead of having it spelled as culture, we put it with cool, like we are cool," Mahinay explained.
Besides, spelled with double o, the word "coolture" brings up associations with a chilled drink.
Six people are operating the store currently. They all have other full-time jobs, so to keep the store open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mahinay, who also works full-time, needed quite a bit of help.
"These are my friends who help me to run and operate the store, so I'm very thankful to these friends of mine that they are here and helping me progressively evolve, change and get better," Mahinay said.聽
小蓝视频east Pop Coolture serves customers snacks and drinks to go, including a variety of freshly brewed coffees, cappuccinos, teas and ice coffees, homemade sandwiches and juices at more than affordable prices. People can also pick up some packed snacks and bottled drinks.聽
The new little store is still stocking up on supplies. In the future, they may consider bringing in other meals and food options.
The building the new coffee shop occupies used to be a sports apparel store and the 小蓝视频east Pop Coolture is taking up just half of it. Mahinay said that he hopes another small business will be willing to come in and share the space.
"We converted half of the building to be used by us, and the other half of the building by whoever wants to come in. I'm (inviting) small businesses to (join me) and open (here)," Mahinay said.
It's planned that the building will remain an open space, where people would be able to see everything two businesses have to offer in one visit.
But so far, Mahinay is focusing on the convenience store/coffee shop, exploring the market and seeking some ideas as to what else customers would want to see at this new place.
"As we progressively evolve week after week listening to people, we'll look into what else we can offer. We may even try to do hot meals, maybe hot soups," Mahinay said.
He added that the first few days of testing the water have been pretty good with many people stopping by and checking the new place out.
