Quoted from Yoko2una:That's the thing... I'm not terrible. So imagine what it's like for people who stink at playing too. They're going to blow through their dollars/tokens even quicker and not want to feed more money into the barcade.
So there's a place my GF and I are going tomorrow in Boston. Basically all games are $1/play... AND the beers are like $6/ea.
(Let's ignore the girl for a minute, though she can play!)
Example A - I buy $20 in tokens, which in turn gets me 20 games. I believe Op's in other threads said ideal ball time for $1 games are 3-5 minutes. So let's take the average of 4min/play and I'm sipping on drinks between games. That's only like 90 minutes, and if my focus is on pins, I've maybe only ordered 3 beers tops. So the revenue for the barcade is $20 + (3x$6) = $38. At that point if I'm considering diving back in, I'm looking at potentially doubling that expense and instead usually call it and leave because $72 in one evening is a LOT of money for myself to drink and play pinball.
Example B - I buy $20 in tokens, which in turn gets me lets say 30-40 games ($0.50-$0.75/play) now I'm there for 2.25 - 3 hours, basically double the time. I've ordered 5 drinks, and because I'm 5 drinks deep that menu is looking awfully nice (and this place does have good food). Same coin drop, but they've gotten two more profitable drinks off of me, and I'm ordering food. After that, perhaps I have a 2nd wind because we talked about the games we just played and how we were so close to the GC score. Now they've received $20 + (5x$6) = $50 + food + a potential 2nd token purchase as I don't feel like leaving yet as I feel I've been getting good value for the money I've spent. Plus I am more inclined to return, perhaps with friends, and just spread the word in general.
OR...
Example C - Johnny Hipster walks in because pinball is all the rage, and gets $20 in tokens. He gets schooled because GoT is too damn fast, TWD has a flipper gap he can't manage, and KISS tilts when someone across the room sneezes. He burns through that $20 in less than an hour, wonders where that money went so quick, realizes even a movie ticket yields a better entertainment/hour ratio and decides not to return. In that time, he only had 1 PBR tallboy for the bar's $3 special. They made a quick $23 off of him, but I bet he ain't coming back.
I understand people need to make money, but this isn't the travelling carnival where it's about the quick buck. IMO Barcades should be about building a base of loyal customers, and strategically pricing things so we want to do 2 things and 2 things only - STAY and RETURN another day. If they can't do those things properly, they'll go the way of all the frozen yogurt places named after random fruits and colors. There's something to be said about games constantly getting $0.50 dropped in them vs. $1 sitting there not being played, and again I'm talking barcades here.
Wow, you drive from New Hampshire to Mass and expect to take your lady out on a date and show her a good time in the big city for $20.00!?!?!?! Seriously are you a student or employed or what? You can't go to a friggin movie today for $20.