Safe journeys my friend. Glad Ren Fest will happen. Prada and I will look forward to your visit.

LTG : )

My stickers made it to Australia for Houdini thanks a bunch. Is there somewhere that shows where they go? i'm good with the targets but there's a couple i haven't figured out.

Thanks mate, quality product and a good thing you are doing to boot.

Today is the day. June 10th 2020 reopening after the three month shutdown. With virus protocols in place.

A huge heartfelt thank you to all who supported me during this crisis and help give me a fighting chance. I will never forget your kindness !
LTG : )

Looking Great LTG! I see you still didn't clean out/organize that front display case though! Maybe you need a week off earthquake to get to that one lol. Best of luck to you Our friend. We wish you a safe and successful return and as always Sincerely appreciate ALL you do for this hobby!

Boy, that looks like a fun arcade!

Very best wishes !

Great news!!

Man that place looks fun. Good luck with the Grand Reopening brother.

The goose is loose! I'm not the biggest fan of JJP games, but that lineup of all five in chronological order is effing impressive. Your locals are lucky to have you.

It is cleaned and organized. Mostly pieces and parts I use for tech support. Lets people see some of what is inside the pinball machines. Only things in there not for tech support is my brick from under the Hopkins clock tower, Spooky documentary DVD, and the PINALL Golden Goose, and my Expo plaque.

You can't see it, but the four drawers below and in back are all cleaned out too.

Boy, I haven't seen a machine (that I didn't own) in attract mode in quite a while....

p.s. You gonna' suit Prada up in Hazmat gear?

HazMat (resized).jpg

Nice!!! Looks like they’re waitin for me to set some high scores.

Congrats and hopefully you get some instant traffic.

Should be easier now. I reset most of the high scores right after I made this video.

I get some great players through here, and many of the scores weren't reachable.

LTG : )

Congratulations on reopening. Glad to see it!

Best wishes on continued success!

Glad you are opening back up!! All of pinside is rooting for your success!!

Congrats on opening back up. Your place looks great! I cannot wait to get over to the US in the next couple of years so I can come check it out.

If you know you'll be coming here. Please let me know in advance so I can try and make your visit special !

LTG : )

Special? Does that mean you’ll wear pants that day? lol

I went commando for your visit.

LTG : )

Lloyd, curious as to how first few days of reopening have gone?

Best of luck!

Better than I hoped. Still too early to tell. When the freeway east of me was closed for ten months, it took a good three months to get rolling again.

First day was good. Thursday slow. Friday dead until the sun started going down, which is typical in the Summer, people come in more after dark. Yesterday was spotty.

It remains to be seen. I don't have any experience over the years to know what to expect.

Thank you !
LTG : )

Yeah wasn't expecting you to say things were GREAT but the fact you had one good day out of 4 is better then I would expect and is great to read. A LOT of people are still reluctant to even go out to anywhere public not to mention for something that's not a necessity. Again, best of luck and keep us posted!

It's been a roller coaster so far. And nothing like this in past history to estimate how business might be.

This past Tuesday didn't even pay to be open.

I've had a few days where people do start coming in after the sun starts setting. Which is the usual norm in the Summer months. And pretty quick we start getting dark earlier a minute sooner each day. And in a couple weeks the 4th of July and the roller coaster to Fall.

My thinking is it will keep plugging along and hopefully build up for an okay Fall and Winter. Not where it should be. But better than being closed.

LTG : )

Wishing you the best!

Lloyd... don’t want to get too personal on your revenue and all, but are you willing to give a general sense of how things are going the last few months?

All over the map. 47+ years of experience out the window. No idea when I might have customers, no idea when it will be dead.

Overall a rough guess is I'm doing about 1/3rd to 1/2 of what I need to get by. Not get ahead.

Hopefully as the days grow shorter, sun sets earlier, weather gets colder. And maybe a new game or two before the end of the year. Things will improve.

LTG : )

Let’s hope so, for everyone’s sake.

Bumping as LTG could use our help again. He believes he can stay open for now but it's not clear. I'm going to send him some more cash to hopefully keep him afloat. I hope he doesn't need it and it's just extra money for him though it seems like a real possibility he could be shut down for a long period of time again.

It's been said before in this thread but it is worth repeating. LTG is a true treasure to our hobby and we should absolutely do what we can to help him out if he needs it.

Do you know, is it because of poor patronage or a change in regulations, or...?

From what I know he's been scraping by but the governor for MN just put out new guidelines that specifically restrict things like "no bar games that require standing". I think he found away around that restriction currently but unless things drastically improve that could change for the worse.

Please correct me if I got anything wrong LTG.

The new restrictions are for bars and restaurants only. Entertainment venues (arcades, theaters, etc) are allowed to operate under current guidelines with the newly placed "no food or beverage service after 10pm" mandate.

Yes but which would you consider SS Billiards? A bar or entertainment venue? I'm not sure how they distinguish that. Maybe alcohol sales?

Either way it would be nice if LTG had a cushion instead of scraping by.

There is no alcohol at SS Billiards, therefore it is not a bar.

Oh I did not know that. I thought he at least served beer.

Thank you all for your interest.

Yesterday was hectic to say the least. At first it looked like I'd be closed again at 10pm on Friday for who knows how long this time. So I was already thinking what game(s) to sell.

As time went by. And things became more evident. For me it looks like my capacity is reduced a little, no problem. Starting Friday at 10pm no selling soda pop or candy bars, or allowing soda pop, snacks, candy bars, or food, to be consumed in here and every day after at 10pm. No idea for how long.

I don't sell alcohol or allow it on the premises.

I apologize for the initial panic. I was trying to figure things out and what to do, as they unfolded. Fully expecting the worst.

LTG : )

No need to apologize. I unfortunately think you might still need help here in the near future so I hope some people will send some extra money your way. Hopefully you don't need it and can instead spend the money on some improvement that you couldn't afford in the past but wanted to do.

I really wish there was support for the businesses that are forced closed or even the ones that are starting to fall behind due to less customers.

After listening to the governor, starting Saturday I'll be closed again for at least a month.

LTG : (

I wish I was wrong. Please if anyone can spare some extra cash LTG is going to need it. Sure he can sell games if he has to but it would be nice not to. Plus I'm not sure what would happen if he had no games and no money left by the time he can get back on his feat.

Sorry to hear Lloyd. You wanna help me finish up a Lucky Ace repair before I start a thread? I’ll graciously pay for your time via PP. Win win. Plan on working on it tomorrow after work.

I'm afraid you'll have to start a thread. I haven't been in an EM in 40 years.

Thank you though !
LTG : )

Damn it!! Haha. I’ll throw you a couple bucks via PP either way then.

Getting gift certs, is that in person only?
Do you have a paypal for donation?

Thanks Llyod!

I can send it to you via PM not sure I can post his info here? Honestly AMAZING how many giving and wonderful people that have reached out for this. Yes, Lloyd is good for pinball but more so he is an Amazing person! Much more then pinball with this guy. How many family grown pinball establishments have survived for almost (soon) 50 Years!!! That itself shows his dedication and commitment alone. God knows pinball is Not a millionaire business plan. Its a plan for the Love of the hobby. Lloyd is a simple humble guy that loves what he and his family created and is willing to sacrifice all he has to to keep it alive. Truly an amazing story to be honest. Just as amazing are those that shared even a kind word or few dollars to help out just to be kind. Really a great thing to see. You are ALL amazing!

Thanks guys, someone pm'd me his pp and I sent over a thank you.

Lloyd is awesome.

Thank you for doing this !
LTG : )