Another arcade getting closed down.

[Todd Tuckey]

That is sad to hear....but redemption seems to be the only way to survive when you are putting in tokens or swiping a card. Namco just pulled out of all THREE of their Brunswick Bowling Centers last week--a fomer TNT employee was working for them until Sunday. Obviously, another vendor is going into those locations, but if Namco--the arcade specialists for all these years--are jumping ship on more and more spots, it does put the writing on the wall!
The ONLY way to operate an arcade profitably is the one paid admission policy I have talked about for years! All agms are FREE and Pay $10 and stay all day---leave and come back, but keep the wrist band on, and you are free again....a resort on the boardwalk could have a Two or Three day wristband deal also....
A good player is only going to put a few quarters into the game and play for a a couple hours--a good pin player for 4-5 hours after racking up a bunch of free games....so why not collect one flat price? This way, the good player can stay all day, the curious will come in for a half hour and come back later, and--MOST IMPORTANT--the ARCADE OWNER---maybe YOU one day---will be able to pay real techs and real employees, and also pay the rent!!! Silverball Amusements in Asbury Park NJ is doing just this now. A couple came in today looking to buy a pinball who were there--they figure about an hour---cost them $20 and they were SATISFIED. If they were putting in quarters, they would have spent maybe $5 at most. It is the PERCEPTION of value that is important. Todd from TNT Amusements

 

[DreamTR]

That is sad to hear....but redemption seems to be the only way to survive when you are putting in tokens or swiping a card. Namco just pulled out of all THREE of their Brunswick Bowling Centers last week--a fomer TNT employee was working for them until Sunday. Obviously, another vendor is going into those locations, but if Namco--the arcade specialists for all these years--are jumping ship on more and more spots, it does put the writing on the wall!
The ONLY way to operate an arcade profitably is the one paid admission policy I have talked about for years! All agms are FREE and Pay $10 and stay all day---leave and come back, but keep the wrist band on, and you are free again....a resort on the boardwalk could have a Two or Three day wristband deal also....
A good player is only going to put a few quarters into the game and play for a a couple hours--a good pin player for 4-5 hours after racking up a bunch of free games....so why not collect one flat price? This way, the good player can stay all day, the curious will come in for a half hour and come back later, and--MOST IMPORTANT--the ARCADE OWNER---maybe YOU one day---will be able to pay real techs and real employees, and also pay the rent!!! Silverball Amusements in Asbury Park NJ is doing just this now. A couple came in today looking to buy a pinball who were there--they figure about an hour---cost them $20 and they were SATISFIED. If they were putting in quarters, they would have spent maybe $5 at most. It is the PERCEPTION of value that is important. Todd from TNT Amusements

I disagree that the "only" way you can be profitable is to charge $10 all day. People choose not to GO to you if that is the case. They are more apt to come BACK to you on their breaks and spend a couple of dollars here and there. If you have enough machines it works well.

Retro's CLOSED their doors with an day fee of $6. How are you supposed to be keeping track of what makes money and when things break you can't justify spending money to fix things.

The perception of value is a couple coming in 4-6 times a month as opposed to ONCE a month because of the cost. I firmly disagree on all day play.

Also, you are giving too much credit to "good" pinball players and "good" game players. That is by area. If you are near a school/movie theatre, the CASUAL gamer spends money pretty quickly. I have kids coming in here spending $30-40 in a day sometimes, but a lot of mall people come in and spend $2-4 a day on their BREAKS. There is no way you can get people to come back with $6 all the time on that.

You also need to know your demographics. Fighting game crowds you want. They have expendable income and tournaments draw crowds. Hispanics play Neo Geo. Moms/Dads play classics, couples play drivers, we understand the demographics of what works.

We've been open a year and a half here and the fact we BUY/SELL console games and systems (where a lot of profit comes from) helps out because we have our feet in all the TRUE video gaming aspects. Can't force people to come in and pay an all day fee if we want them to be reintroduced to games the way they were MEANT to be played, and they can buy/sell retro vintage games with us as well.

Namco jumped ship on MANY things because no one in corporate knew how to hire/run routes, and that's a fact. Profitability is a big thing, and they consolidated everything for Wal-Marts and movie theatre lobbies.

So far we've definitely made our money (put it all back into games) and people enjoy coming here because of the value. We were doing very well at the second location and the ONLY reason we have to leave is because of the LBE coming in. No other reason. That was a very profitable location.

 

[DreamTR]

archangel: It would not matter, our lease is originally supposed to end in August. We can't fight to keep the games in there for 5 months AND possibly risk losing our Hickory Hollow location because the mall's parent doesn't like being sued. It's really a closed case, honestly. We just won't deal with that mall again. We wish them well, but after courting us to begin with, getting us in there, and doing this to us, it's not something we're going to me doing as often anymore (looking for mall spots).

If the mall can revoke the licensing agreement for ANYTHING it wants and is not responsible for anything on our end with costs burdened to us opening the place, it's really a lose lose situation.

 

[rony2211]

i have slowly started to add arcade mac to my game stores and am running out of space, i have a gamestop moving pretty much next door to me , so im thinking of leasing a old cvs and opening a arcade-gamestore, how many sq feet are your locations and on average how many employees do you need to run it? if you dont mine me asking Ron

 

[thebman80]

The same company owns both of the malls the arcades are in... so... yeah, probably wouldn't go over too well with them.

My only concern with that is what if they get all chummy with this competitor and force you out of your other location just like there doing now, So the can put one in there other mall. That's why I would consult a lawyer on the matter just in case.

 

[DreamTR]

My only concern with that is what if they get all chummy with this competitor and force you out of your other location just like there doing now, So the can put one in there other mall. That's why I would consult a lawyer on the matter just in case.

They won't put one in the other mall. Trust me. Google Hickory Hollow Mall and you'll see why they would never consider it.

 

[arch8ngel]

They won't put one in the other mall. Trust me. Google Hickory Hollow Mall and you'll see why they would never consider it.

This makes it sound like you're really losing the prime location, though.

I just don't like the thought of people getting pushed around in what sounds like a marginally legal fashion. Non-competition is one of the most anti-American concepts I can think of.

 

[DreamTR]

Yes, we are getting pushed out of the more profitable location.

It is what it is. Just shows what kind of people own the place if they have to complain about a little arcade that probably makes a total of 1/8 of their RENT for the month. It's asinine to a magnitude I can not even begin to describe.

 

[thebman80]

Well there's always the possibility the place could totally bomb new businesses always have a high percentage of failure in the first year.

 

[DreamTR]

I don't wish any business to fail, but they fear people COMING to us anyway because we are cheaper. They just want that $1-$3 entertainment dollar.

I read that the average person spends $16.72 at Incredible Dave's. $16.72???????????

IN this economy, the whole point is to have cheap entertainment. You can take your kids to the mall and leave them with a couple of bucks to play games with us. It's a middle class area and they are trying to bring high end entertainment posing as "middle class."

I've seen nothing but bad reviews of the place so far online.

Maybe they'll have some Stern pinball machines at least.

Here is what the second Game Galaxy looks like now (someone else did this video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-PonvSQCyI

 

[gutsman004]

I don't wish any business to fail, but they fear people COMING to us anyway because we are cheaper. They just want that $1-$3 entertainment dollar.

I read that the average person spends $16.72 at Incredible Dave's. $16.72???????????

From what i've read,I do hope they fail.Total BS! That's not how you do things!

 

[GAMERTERRY]

NAMCO what a joke..they got out of the mall game rooms and tried to become a route operator...they knew nothing about routes at all...they tried calling them satellite locations haha...they have no techs to work on equip so most games dont work at all or not right...they pull them and put them in warehouses all over the country..then try to sell on website or auctions ...