POLL How much would you pay for unlimited play.

:thumbs_up: This. I'm married with two kids there is no way the four of us could afford all day play at an arcade at $20 (or more) per head.

Believe me I totally understand as I am on an extreme budget as far as entertainment goes. However if I do not spend some money on entertainment I do nothing.... and well... I obviously don't want to do nothing. However as Orangewhip mentioned this is cheap in terms of other forms of entertainment. Some examples of entertainment locally:

A day at the carnival costs $20-40 per person for a wristband for 4-5 hours of rides or all day rides. I cannot find anything less than $20. This is for a parking lot carnival of 5-12 rides mix of adult and kid rides. Some carnivals here are charging $6.25 for enough tickets for one adult ride. This is for one person to ride one ride. Some carnivals charge admission and parking on top of these prices. Some carnivals do not sell single tickets so you are stuck buying a pack of 5 tickets when rides cost 2-3 tickets each... (just an example) This is for about a 2 min experience. Doesn't include food costs, parking costs or game costs. Most carnival games around here are $5 a shot... this is for about 30 seconds to one minute of entertainment.

Movie ticket costs 11.50 here or $15+ for a 3D movie.. not sure if that is still a thing, haven't been to the movies in a while. But this is a relatively passive form of entertainment, its not a bad value, but you can't really talk to your friends or socialize during a movie.

A single gokart ride for a single person costs $28 at Pole Position raceway, this about 10-15 min of entertainment barring any wait time.

Other redemption arcades.. well we know how fast your money can be gone at those places.... Dave & Busters does provide a decent value however you have to use coupons and go on wed to make it viable.

Event tickets... well you are going to spend $10-20 just for the parking at any event around here...

These are just a few examples... I could list many more.

As you can see paying $10-15 for a day pass at an arcade (or $20 at a very massive arcade) ranks as one of the least expensive entertainment options you can find at least in my area.. if you are looking for something less expensive I can only suggest taking a walk around the park or sitting at home and playing on a video game console, that is about the only things I can think of that will be less expensive. The place that I go to also has a ton of games that would cost well over 25 cents to play in most locations... so you can't judge the rate based on just 25 cents per game.
 
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but the OP is talking a business. Not every customer is going to play 40 games ($10). They just aren't. He's got to keep the lights on.

Ahhh... about a business... got it.

how much people play... I'd have no idea.

need to keep the lights on... I don't know much about that.

;)
 
These are all good points, and although I have ruled out coins, I haven't ruled out tokens 100% yet for all of the reasons you mention above. Also with tokens I don't have to have a member of staff stuck at the arcade entrance policing wristbands which I'm not thrilled about doing. If I were going down this road though, tokens would be 50c each with a minimum purchase of $5, 1 token per vid, 2 tokens per pin. I can't charge 1982 prices while paying 2017 bills.

Hmm, with the attendant its usually a multi purpose attendant, they answer the phones, help with the games, make reservations if you do parties etc. Even with tokens people will take them and spend them elsewhere and bring in tokens from other arcades to use in yours, so there will be some kind of fraud regardless, you just have to trust people to kinda be honest about it because regardless even if you had an attendant checking every one who comes in and out someone could slip through. You can write the date and time on the wristband so people cannot re-use it, that is what they do here.

BTW if you buy plain wristbands those won't work because you can simply go on amazon or ebay and order a pack of wristbands and people can get in for free as long as they have the right color, I have heard of people doing this at events and places and getting away with it so you would have to get something printed with a logo or print to make it harder to fraud, the arcade here has a custom print on theirs.

I would start the prices higher, and then if business doesn't do well you could lower or offer specials, the token pricing you are using isn't bad either, regardless of payment method I would be stopping by if it was in my area. It is difficult to raise prices if you find you set your price per entry too low (people don't like to see raised prices when they are used to paying one price) so start a little higher and then if the market doesn't seem to be bearing it lower the prices or offer packages, discounts etc.
 
The more I carve through my business plan and spreadsheets the more it becomes obvious that the Dave & Busters (and soon Chuck e Cheese) card method is truly brilliant in it's design.

It gives you all the advantages of data analytics for game usage, complete control over pricing, the return incentive of tokens, branding on the cards, the reduced likelihood of kids 'splitting a cup of tokens' (1 card each), no fraud, no emptying machines, no coin jams, ultra-low man hours and full automation for refills.

Now, how much would that cost to implement across 60+ games lol

My head hurts :rolleyes:
 
The more I carve through my business plan and spreadsheets the more it becomes obvious that the Dave & Busters (and soon Chuck e Cheese) card method is truly brilliant in it's design.

It gives you all the advantages of data analytics for game usage, complete control over pricing, the return incentive of tokens, branding on the cards, the reduced likelihood of kids 'splitting a cup of tokens' (1 card each), no fraud, no emptying machines, no coin jams, ultra-low man hours and full automation for refills.

Now, how much would that cost to implement across 60+ games lol

My head hurts :rolleyes:

The card thing is neat because you can customize for busy/slow nights. Slow days, you could have a cheaper all day option and busy days could be on a per swipe basis. I remember doing that at Gameworks in Chicago. Thursdays it was 20 for unlimited play on almost everything. The only thing that was not was the newest Stern pin (Mustang at the time) and cranes where you can win prizes.
 
The more I carve through my business plan and spreadsheets the more it becomes obvious that the Dave & Busters (and soon Chuck e Cheese) card method is truly brilliant in it's design.

It gives you all the advantages of data analytics for game usage, complete control over pricing, the return incentive of tokens, branding on the cards, the reduced likelihood of kids 'splitting a cup of tokens' (1 card each), no fraud, no emptying machines, no coin jams, ultra-low man hours and full automation for refills.

Now, how much would that cost to implement across 60+ games lol

My head hurts :rolleyes:

Those cards are a great idea, that's how the games are setup at that arcade in the New York New York casino in Vegas. I wonder if those cards are exempt from that tax the games get when they are set on coin play.
 
As a new member of this group and one that's currently working on opening a pub/arcade I love this thread. This is one of the exact issues I've been chewing on. My place will be more heavily focused on the food/drink so it can stand on its own without the arcade, but I do want the arcade to be a good draw.

Right now I'm leaning towards a time card system with either a single flat all-day fee (probably $15) or a mix of 1/2/all day fees (probably $5/$8/$15). I've also be giving $2 off the all-day cards with the purchase of an entree.
 
The more I carve through my business plan and spreadsheets the more it becomes obvious that the Dave & Busters (and soon Chuck e Cheese) card method is truly brilliant in it's design.

It gives you all the advantages of data analytics for game usage, complete control over pricing, the return incentive of tokens, branding on the cards, the reduced likelihood of kids 'splitting a cup of tokens' (1 card each), no fraud, no emptying machines, no coin jams, ultra-low man hours and full automation for refills.

Now, how much would that cost to implement across 60+ games lol

My head hurts :rolleyes:

I like the card systems for redemption games, I don't go to too many places that do not use cards for those types of games, however the card systems do glitch at times, depending on which card system you are using. Sometimes the card system goes offline too. Dave & busters has a policy that they will remove any tickets due to a glitch its in the powercard's terms and conditions, I have heard of people getting 10k free tickets due to glitches, then they lose them because D&B can flag a card with their systems, and they track all tickets that go to cards via a computer system in the back from what I hear so they can see this in the back and remove tickets as necessary. I would think that removed tickets would lead to unhappy customers because its really not the customers fault if a game glitches. So you have to keep this in mind. I have to admit its very easy to use though and I have not personally experienced a glitch that would cause me to lose tickets and I have been playing at D&B for a long time. I did experience a glitch that made a machine pay out more than it was supposed to but I reported it immediately and they let me keep the tickets no problem so it can work that way too if you are nice about it.

But tokens and quarters fit with a barcade more because people are going for nostalgia, but if you can implement a card system with time limits this would be perfect for the entry fee business model and you wouldn't have to worry about fraud.
 
I would go $10 entry fee for kids 15 and under and $15 over 15... Each of these entry fees gets you 20 tokens...

Then an additional $5 buys you another 15 tokens? That way you don't have to track times...

Also maybe you have the option of a $5 entry fee (no play), if a mom wants to come in with her kid and doesn't want to play, but needs to be there to supervise...

Might be too cheap to make money, but I think people might come at these prices... This is more of a family style pricing, as an adult on his own (w/ nostalgia issues) could stomach a $20 charge...

The card method does seem the best though...
 
Exactly. You're going to get a skewed response here on KLOV. Wait till a dad comes by with his 2 kids and is asked to pay $60 to get in. The average Joe isn't going to do that and you will never, ever come close to surviving on KLOV foot traffic.

And once you've driven them away with too high of a price they'll never be back.

Totally agree with this! I have four kids so for us it'd be $120 for an hour or so if they last that long. To echo everyone else, I'd gladly pay $20 to support the hobby, local business, etc. and keep coming back, but the average passer by is going to keep on walking. I think it'd also depend on how much foot traffic you anticipate. Here in Virginia Beach for say, you could get away with a higher rate especially during the summer months as people are walking the strip for days while on vacation and could take advantage of an all day pass. But how many people realistically are going to load up, drive to the arcade, play, go home and then load up and come back?

With that said I'd think like $15/day unlimited with maybe a 3-day, weekly, and membership discount available?
 
The more I carve through my business plan and spreadsheets the more it becomes obvious that the Dave & Busters (and soon Chuck e Cheese) card method is truly brilliant in it's design.

It gives you all the advantages of data analytics for game usage, complete control over pricing, the return incentive of tokens, branding on the cards, the reduced likelihood of kids 'splitting a cup of tokens' (1 card each), no fraud, no emptying machines, no coin jams, ultra-low man hours and full automation for refills.

Now, how much would that cost to implement across 60+ games lol

My head hurts :rolleyes:

I was going to say something about the card method - thinking you could offer both a day pass or hourly or per play, but then I realized families or friends could share the day pass... So I didn't say anything...

Check with user nevadaMac from Reno - I think he may know who is connected to the wall of classics at the peppermill in Reno that were all converted to the card system... That might get you data on the cost vs payout... Last time I was there I bought a 10 dollar card and the kid said " you just playing the classics?" I guess that is the typical amount for guys over 40 showing up to play the 80s stuff...

I was at ny ny on the strip this past week... The now have a couple macinrs where you go insert your money and it spits out a card... And when you go to reload the car it shows you a line item for every game you played... So ALL the games are wifi wired to use data, or so it seems... NY NY has ten pins that seems to get heavy use - they are all newer titles... Every time I go there they are always getting played....
 
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I was going to say something about the card method - thinking you could offer both a day pass or hourly or per play, but then I realized families or friends could share the day pass... So I didn't say anything...

Check with user nevadaMac from Reno - I think he may know who is connected to the wall of classics at the peppermill in Reno that were all converted to the card system... That might get you data on the cost vs payout... Last time I was there I bought a 10 dollar card and the kid said " you just playing the classics?" I guess that is the typical amount for guys over 40 showing up to play the 80s stuff...

I was at ny ny on the strip this past week... The now have a couple macinrs where you go insert your money and it spits out a card... And when you go to reload the car it shows you a line item for every game you played... So ALL the games are wifi wired to use data, or so it seems... NY NY has ten pins that seems to get heavy use - they are all newer titles... Every time I go there they are always getting played....

Yeah Dave & Busters and every other arcade I have been to with a card does this, it literately shows you every game you have played line by line, on some of them you can scroll through and see your whole card history page by page. I have never seen classics wired up with a card system before though but we don't have any places running an arcade with classics here other than the occasional classic that you see in a pizza place or bar that are run by a local route op.
 
The Peppermill Casino in Reno has a Gameworks type arcade that has a line of about 20 or so classics with the card swipe tech. Only drawback I see is that I think they had to hack the CP to connect the card swipe... That might be a deal breaker...
 
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