Nov 10, 2026
On a quiet Saturday, Joey Bannavong works the second floor of a Vaughan, Ontario, mall in a neat black suit, making sure his Halloween gaming tournament runs smoothly. Downstairs, most shops in the mall are closed. Upstairs, small crowds gather around close matches.
The reason? A nail salon. Bannavong helped his mom, Kuoiying, open K Nail & Hair in the mall, and he’s been running gaming events there since April to drum up business at a time when he says many of the mall’s business owners, his mom included, are struggling.
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The crowds are showing up. Neighbouring restaurants say they’re busier. The salon, on the other hand? Not so much — and Bannavong isn’t paid a penny for his work. It’s a common trade-off in family-run businesses: relatives pitch in for free to keep costs down, but that help only pays off if it brings in paying customers.
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How is one gamer trying to grow his family’s salon?
Bannavong was headed for a career in game design before he switched gears to go into marketing and entrepreneurship, he told the Toronto Star. He’s been gaming “since before I could walk,” he says, so combining that passion with his mom’s dream of running a salon felt natural.
His events at The Shops at Centro Square, near Weston Road and Highway 7, just north of Toronto, mix tournaments with community draws like a pop-up vendors market. One player drove about 60 kilometres west from Whitby, Ont., to take part.
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Why isn’t more foot traffic turning into salon sales?
Despite his efforts, Bannavong says the salon hasn’t seen a bump in business.
Retail analyst Craig Patterson, founder of Retail Insider, told the Star that events like these are a smart way to lift mall traffic, because people who show up excited tend to “come, stay, and spend.” But he says there’s likely a simple reason the salon hasn’t benefited: gamers may not be salon customers.
Other businesses are feeling the payoff, though. Truong Th Thuong, owner of Yamato Teriyaki, told the Star she’s had more customers since the events began. Kenneth Ogilvie, owner of Orlando’s Restaurant and Grill, reports new diners too.
Ela Veresiu, an associate professor of marketing at York University, told the Star that benefits from events like these often spill over to food spots. It fits how people spend a tournament day. A meal is an easy add-on between matches, while a pedicure means booking a separate appointment.
What does this kind of marketing really cost a family business?
Bannavong says he doesn’t profit from the events. Adam Cristant, a local tournament organizer who volunteered at the Halloween event, backs up Bannavong’s claim, telling the Star that margins are small and people run them mostly for the community.
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Unpaid hours still have a cost — time that isn’t going into paid work or other ways to promote the salon. And the generosity runs in Bannavong’s family. Kuoiying told the Star she sometimes covers part of a customer’s service out of her own pocket when they can’t afford it.
That kind of care builds loyalty, but every discounted service and unpaid hour is revenue the business doesn’t collect. Over time, that strain is one of the reasons owners walk away.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of small business owners plan to leave their business within the next decade, according to an Oct. 22, 2026, report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), an advocacy group representing 103,000 small and medium-sized firms. Burnout or stress (21%) and high operating costs (20%) are among the reasons pushing them out.
More businesses are closing than opening, too. In July 2026, the latest month available, 46,823 Canadian businesses closed while 45,874 opened, according to Statistics Canada, the federal government’s national statistics agency.
Retail strategist Lisa Hutcheson told the Star that many malls have long billed themselves as town centres meant to serve their communities. Bannavong’s events are filling that role at Centro Square. The next step is making sure his family’s salon gets its share of the value he’s creating. For now, he’s fine with the trade-off. “I’ll gladly do it,” he told the Star.
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
