Walk-in: Do you guys fix pinball machines?
Pook: We fix your games for free! As long as you leave them here to be played for 6 months once it's fixed.
W: Wow! I mean ours is in the basement...they are heavy.
P: Yeah, I move mine up and down the basement stairs all the time. I know they are heavy.
W: 6 months, that's a long time.
P: How many years has it been broke, lol ?
W: Oh probably 5 years....maybe longer....10 really.
P: You can come visit it as often as you like.
W: What if you can't fix it?
P: Never had one we could not fix, but no charge if we can't.
W: What if my game breaks while it's here? I mean so many people playing it!
P: Games were made to be beaten on, shook up, swore at. It will come back battle hardened, ego in check.
W: I don't know, for all the trouble, how much is it for you to come to my house?
P: $150 a hour, plus travel time from the shop, plus parts.
W: You know, I only paid $200 for the game! Wow!
P: Yeah, I once bought a car for $800 and then had to put in a trans for $1500 a month latter.
W: OK, I'll bring it.

So you will get some extra games to rotate, hopefully a few people will come visit their game and play some of the others.

TAF and Bally Playboy are the 2 games that are always broken in every **rec-room** in America, so you might see multiples of those.

Jump in with both feet and try to make it a viable business. Open it 6 days a week, hire some college kids and serve a limited selection of beverages.

I’ve yet to see a barcade that isn’t packed with this model.

Heck give free beer away at a grand re-opening to really draw them in. You’re in a college town. Free beer+ college kids+video games=best advertising ever.

That $100 keg will pay for itself.

I’m in marketing if your not on trip advisor, yelp, Facebook and other apps like that your shooting yourself in the foot. A large percent of the population use apps like those to search for entertainment\food and if your not managing and encouraging your customer to post reviews for you on those apps and sites then your missing a very large crowd of people who may otherwise not know your place even exists, especially if your in a touristy type town. Get online and create/claim your pages ASAP and get yourself some free exposure.

@OP
do you want to run a museum , barcade or a family fun center?

workout what you want to run, then you can workout who your customer base is
once you know the demographic you want, then you can workout if the location is right for them

...THEN you can promote to your target customer base

I stopped by today with my wife and kids to check things out. We were absolutely floored. The games are stunning and the variety in Paul’s collection is amazing. The atmosphere was friendly and inviting. My wife had our one year old in a carrier on her back and had plenty of room to comfortably play (and consistently beat me). Paul was incredibly gracious and attentive to my young daughter. She was mesmerized by all the lights, bells and whistles. I’m so sorry to hear that the place is struggling. We are planning to come back this coming weekend! While I don’t have any additional suggestions beyond what has already been written by other folks, I promise to enthusiastically spread the word locally and get more people through the door. It would be a shame and loss to the pinball and Charlottesville communities if this places closes down.

I agree. I'm not in marketing, but own my own small business. Reviews / social media are where it's at. Google listing, Yelp, facebook, instagram. Create your accounts, and have a email newsletter signing sheet when they come it. Send targeted emails / texts requesting reviews. There are apps that do this, grade.us, birdeye, etc. Texts work better and know that it's against terms of service to request Yelp reviews.

Post images and videos on your social media accounts. Create a following. Easier said than done, but not that hard.

Stay away from groupon at all costs. Once you start with them, your business name will always be on groupon, and it's the first thing people will see when they search for you, because they rank well. If people think that there's a chance you may discount in the future, they may hold off on coming, waiting for a deal.

Leave flyers / business cards at local businesses that allow it.

Anyway, my two cents

Unless you are the government and then you run an unprofitable business for years, aka the USPS.

The purpose of the Government is not necessarily to make a profit. Different scenario.

Quick sidebar -
No government money/aka tax dollars are involved with USPS. It's only swimming in red ink on paper because the corporations that want to take over mail service and milk it dry lobbied congress to mandate that USPS prefund their pension obligations something like 50 years in advance., knowing it would likely break USPS and force privatization. So it looks like they're losing money every year, but a lot of that (some years ALL of that) is an on-paper pre-funding shortfall NO other government agency is bound by. USPS needs to be supported. Heaven help us all if corporations get hold of it, especially if you live in a rural area.

Exactly

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming.......

No question, Alcohol can cause problems but there is no way I'd stop buy if a couldn't have a beer while playing. Not looking to get bombed but a local craft beer and some pins would pull me in..

i concur that Groupon is huge and does the marketing for you. i don't think any radio / print advertising works.

i've done zero advertising in the 10 years i have been open.

location is key, i don't think that location is a good idea personally. i started in a dead mall with cheap rent and worked the place with one other person...i didn't need a bunch to profit..i also bought and sold machines on the side...

reddit posts work, facebook, etc...that stuff becomes viral, but again, location is key...you need something visible regardless for people to find you...

my stores are in a mall and have a game store and 130 games for $7 one hour $10 all day play..

the other is in a 10k sq ft building with 400 physical machines and same pricing with large console area and game store...we do leagues, tournaments, events for everything...we do private events and we allow parties for free as long as they bring their own food and clean up.

now you aren't going to get rich off this but in my case i have 700 games and i am very comfortable right now....i drive a tacoma...you just have to be smart with your money...on my end the money is in the physical machines i have....they increased in value and that was it...

time and time again i see people make mistakes of heavy advertising, hundreds of thousands of dollars investing, having multiple investors, factors, etc....these place come and go, and i guarantee you have heard of most of those but never heard much about my stores in Nashville, yet here we are still ticking.....

keep in mind your love for pinball helps vs thinking bars/pins/investing will make you a ton of money....the smartest person invests the least amount of money to make the maximum profit and puts everything back into the business to make it successful vs trial and error.

$6000 every release, building out for a kitchen, health inspectors on you, codes people to deal with, all so a guy can spend $40-50 twice a year with his family? i wouldn't recommend that ever.

i have had people complain about my store being "dirty"..the building is 100+ years old and concrete and brick...we clean it as much as we can but i'm not spending money on restored pins only for them to get beat up anyway...

in my case you can't play half my games anywhere.....so this is really a personal museum i am allowing people to play at cheap...yet people are mad if the games are off ..we keep pins off in the garage but customers can turn them on, etc.....but they never listen and still hate it and complain...i only charge 10 bucks for 400 games 107 of them pins...to make this place spic and span and new it's 200k and i lose half the stuff and the price would have to go up to 20...that is a chance i won't take...random x factor person wanting super clean stuff will not pay the bills...hardcore regulars and families local looking for cheap entertainment do.

1. Serve beer and wine. It's a must to bring in more money and bring in more people, especially people 21-40. The Seattle Pinball Museum just has bottles they sell and it's still family friendly.
2. There is a local arcade in an alley in the basement of a building that's pretty hard to find. They put sandwich boards on busy nearby corners each day when the open.
3. Print and radio advertising won't pay off. I do promotions and advertising for the NW Pinball & Arcade Show and have tried it all. What works best is Facebook advertising.
4. Get a pinball league night there. Or start a local pinball team for a bar league when you have beer. If your town doesn't have these things, start throwing a weekly pinball tournament.

Usually you can test out alcohol by getting a cheap banquet license. You will probably have to get one a day, but they are usually like $15, I know businesses that have done that for months.

Oh also, make tons of flyers and flyer people's cars. That's super cheap advertising. And post something to your Facebook page every day or two, even if it's just a link to an article about pinball and arcade news. You have to build up followers and a social media presence.

As a potential client....

I go to these places and pay $10 for a craft beer while I play. No surprise I can buy a 4 pack for $12 around the corner.

that "free beer" will cost more then that after you get permits to have it at your location. If they are paying an entrance fee the "free beer" isn't really free. You might get away with a number of times, but eventually a alcohol agent will get wind (usually by your competitors) and give you a hefty fine.

Here in texas The TABC (texas alchol and beverage commsion) would have our ass. We used to get catch shit from them on a regular basis. They always came in harassed our bartenders on the busiest nights and they ALWAYS found something wrong (why is this door lock?, where is the label on this?, etc..) everything wrong you get a fine. God forbid one of your patron ever have an accident because then you get put on their shit list for weekly visits. It's like a legal mafia.

After the TABC botched a court case against a local liquor and beer vendor SPEC's we haven't had any issues with them. Pretty sure the state neutered their authority. It's not about what you do or don't do, its about who you know or who your attorney knows. Regardless it's best not to give the agency near you any extra ammunition.

Serving alcohol can be great and it can have the potential to make money, but it comes with huge risks.
Unless your in a no-fault state, if a patron leaves a bar and gets into an accident, them or their family can come and sue the shit out of your business. What I've come to learn is usually lawyers don't waste their time unless you have insurance. It's an easy mark and a quick payday for an attorney. Even if your not in the wrong the insurance company will settle in your stead. Every time you get sued your premiums skyrocket, eventually to the point to where it doesn't make sense to keep it.

Have you guys heard about the Ice Cream Museum? This place has been entirely design for one thing : ready made pictures for your smartphone. Flashy colors, giant fruits, strong lighting,... People take pictures of themselves to post on the social networks. No need for advertising. This place has now high rankings on several travel websites... I'm not saying it's great, but that's the world we live in.

Pinball universe is quite photogenic too in my opinion : you could arrange few photobooth places in the museum with coloured lights, giant pop bumpers and drop targets... All DIY, maybe not a big investment. People take pictures and post them on Instagram, and optionnally play pinball of course

For what it's worth...

I’m really diggin the vibe in this thread so far. Some really solid and well thought out advice being delivered in a good way.

A rotating selection of craft beer is a must, most places have a diverse local selection at this point.

If you do not want to have the cost associated with a kitchen, there is always the possibility of “popup” restraunts, health department permitting. Around here the breweries find small niche businesses like beef jerky, bbq, pretzels, bakeries and donut shops to setup a table once a week so that they may serve food. I am not sure if the host venue receives a cut of sales, it is worth pressing for it. The main idea is not to get people to spend on food, rather to have them stay longer.

Other places provide take out menus to customers and allow food to be brought in.

The breweries and barcade here host trivia once a week, usually related to comedy movies, shows or adult geared cartoons.

One thing that all these successful places have in common, constant posting on social media and Facebook event pages that friends can share with eachother. For instance If you make a super troopers trivia night event page, you will benefit from the popularity of that movie. I have seen weekdays that would be otherwise dead, have 25 people involved with trivia.

Yep. The OP mentioned earlier that he spent $180 on ads ... old school radio/paper ads dont work any more.

Get a Facebook page set up and update it regularly with your opening hours and new pin arrivals etc. Promote your league nights hard. I think you said there was a college in town? Try and get them involved somehow.

These days using social media, promotion is free/cheap, compared to the old days ... however you need to put in some good effort to make them work.

rd

I know others have already mentioned this but pinballmap.com is an absolute must. I travel for a living and use their app almost exclusively to find pins on the road. Talk to the admin and have them add a section for Charlottesville.

I'll agree that social media presence is vital, but I would not update daily unless you have something with substance to announce. Simply updating daily to post your hours (i.e. updating for the sake of an update) will annoy people and they'll begin to block or un-follow your page as a nuisance. Keep the updates interesting and informational, like a special you're running or a change in the game line-up. Or, announce available games to play in blocks, with one nice bright clear picture of a couple of games. That way you're always announcing something fresh instead of repeating old news.

Richard

There is no guarantee in that. Bars go broke too.

Depending on your license and location, you may not have minors in there, even with parent. And not all people are into the "bar" scene. Especially non drinkers. They need places to go too.

It may help a business, it may hurt it. People running it really have to do their homework on what will work best for them.

LTG : )

Your best bet is to get a food truck for few nights and a Ice Cream truck for they other. A couple of vending machines inside, soda and snacks. If your going to succeed you are going to have to promote it as a real business. It wont just happen. Hire someone who's salary is tied to the profits.

Do you have food and beverages at all? Or just no alcohol? While I do enjoy being able to have a beer or 5 while I play, it's not a necessity. I can only offer advice as a customer, not an operator, but I have a few buddies I'll go with to locations alot that have a similar selection (20+ games), some we drive over 40 minutes to get to just to play:

Alcohol and food is great. Food and non-alcoholic beverages is fine. Just beverages is a must. Most of the time I'm not just stopping in for a game or two, we're in for the day/night's activity. Having no where to get a drink without leaving, and no ability to get or bring in food would be a big deterrent. Same with some chairs and tables set up for a break and just to keep our stuff on.

If your customers are like us, you're losing money at $10 all day play. At our weekly league I'm there for about 2 hours and spend 10 bucks or so. If we had a $10 all day play place by us for pins I'd never leave lol.

Sounds like the location and parking could be 90% of the problem. If no one can find you or get to you, you're lost before you even start.

Best wishes and success !

LTG : )

You could also sell "memberships" that allow all-access for a monthly fee.

Social media is great, particularly to market to an established clientele, however radio is the ultimate word of mouth, except you're telling thousands of people at a time instead of just one. However, to be successful you have to run the commercial enough times for it to be effective and $180 isn't going to do it. Many radio stations have radio auctions and they will trade you commercials for your gift certificates that they will then sell in their auction, it's a win win as they get paid, you get exposure during the auction plus commercials to run in exchange for your customers, plus new customers in the door who hopefully have a good experience and become repeat customers. Look for a station with an oldies/classics hits or classic rock format in order to reach the proper demo.

Radio isn't a magic bullet, either. At least, not anymore. I don't listen to terrestrial radio at all. Haven't for like 10 years. Satellite radio has 32.7 million subs now. People not on that are listening to podcasts, music, streams, etc in their cars, too. Radio is losing listeners at a pretty big rate as a result.

How about a competition, where someone could win a running car something flashy like a 90's Camaro rally red, t-tops etc lol. Best score in a 3 month period wins it? You'll get a lot of traffic and hopefully far more money earned then the car will actually cost too. That's how PT Barnum made his first real killing!

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beer and alcohol is not a must....and under no circumstances would i say having an adult hold a beer around minors is "family friendly" at all.

pinball leagues don't bring in money...quite the contrary..it's a bonus if you are in an area like the pacific northwest for gravy on the top of existing cash but he needs groupon at this point.

Tournaments and leagues can bring people in as that's what I've been doing here locally to grow our scene. However, rental is a good option too and allowing BYOB as well. We have a local spot, Free Gold Watch that is similar to yours location wise - off the main drag on Haight Street but not a place anyone would go otherwise unless they knew it was there. They allow BYOB and started with 2 pins and now have 50 and a league with 80 members and 1.5 year waiting list. The pins generate good revenue (i know as I have one there and am surprised it earns in such a large collection especially since my pricing is higher than many other pins). Anyhow, there's a good thread on TiltForums of how Eugene, OR built up their scene, but it's more league/tournament focused: http://tiltforums.com/t/growing-a-pinball-culture-and-player-base/3679/7

I think doing the social media marketing, renting it out for maybe college club parties (event greek system?) and i always see lots of kids parties at the PHOF in Vegas. Could be options and just price it out to be worth the rental in your market. Selling chips, drinks on site is additional incremental revenue too...

First of I wish you luck and hope you succeed and from what it sounds like may even end up moving. I have thought about what you are doing many times have ran the numbers of what it would take to just stay afloat but just haven’t pulled the trigger. I live in a smaller town but next to a Military base that can help a business, but also hurt when they are deployed. So that is also my issue. I to would need cheap rent but such as you that means not so good locations.

Here is my 2 cents.

First you really should add some food, like a snack bar, chips, candy and some drinks. This is money that you are missing out on, not going to make you rich but could pay the electric bill every month or insurance or something. They probably won’t remember you for your snack bar but they will remember you where the place that didn’t have any food or drinks. These are items your league guys should be buying from you.

League run it on an off night if they are only paying $5 and the general customer is paying $10 don’t have league when you have it open to the public.
Package deals (MRC). I know a place in Houston doing what you are doing they have walk in price and they have deals look them up the game preserve Houston. Have a monthly price a family price these include some guest passes so you get them to bring in new potential customers. Plus you now have MRC monthly recurring charge/revenue.

Facebook, it kills me to say this one as I don’t even have a facebook, but every time I go to look for anything anymore it takes me to their facebook. So take advantage of that but as other said don’t over kill it.

Then the last thing is as other stated decide what you want to be? In my area I know I will need more arcade and less pinball to succeed. I would be none alcoholic place but have thought of the BYOB and maybe run some adult only events for that? But would have to look into all the laws and such.
You can also run some promotions, 80’s night, 90’s night play that decade of music have them dress the part and give out a prize to the best dressed to fit the decade.

Good luck and hope you make a go at it. I may PM you for some advice on pulling the trigger on my own arcade, who knows.

Oh another thought - photographers like to have interesting and unique places to shoot so you can rent it out for that as well and like everyone has been saying the Instagrammable stuff is popular and could be an angle too. All kinda related. Funny b/c I just wrote a blog post about that for my own business!

Your male to female ratio is what 3? Where do guys go regularly, except the bar? What if you linked up with a barber shop? High end barber shops are a thing right now. Guys hate sitting around reading 2 year old GQ and SI. They would much rather play pin. Course they could also come in and play pin for a an hour and a half waiting for someone to be free for a shave or hair cut. Two bits. Thats a quarter, right?

Radio reaches 93% of the 12 plus population and averages 243 million listeners per month. Even tv only reaches 87%. Feel free to google it. Satellite radio has minimal listenership in comparison. I run a group of radio stations and this is a misconception we deal with constantly.

No one listens to radio these days. We all have music available on our phones and podcasts have replaced even that in many cases.
Don't waste your money on radio or TV.

The radio industry surveys are not in tune with reality and massaged to hide the massive decline in real-world listenership. If you use TIME INVOLVED with the medium as the metric, which is the only one that matters, that decline is clear. That's why the industry uses terms like "reach" and "exposed" - very easy to meet the definition of those words, but meaningless in practice. The articles that quote the embarrassing stats from that Nielsen survey even point out that REACH is nothing - USAGE is where it's at, and TV USAGE destroys Radio in the length of interaction. I'm sure iphone/tablet/ipad does, too. Also, if you heard a minute or three of radio anytime in the past week, you were counted in that Nielsen survey as being "reached" by radio, but again, that's a meaningless level of content from that media source. So 93% of the US heard at least a minute of radio ONE TIME in the past week. Meaningless.

Iheartradio didn't go bankrupt over 20 Billion (with a B) in debt because radio is healthy. CBS radio didn't go the way of the dodo (okay, given away in a merger) because radio is an awesome business model in the 21st century. CBS DOES, however, still have all their TV holdings, still, and are making a killing there. Hmm. Terrestrial radio is declining compared to historical norms, and that will continue to accelerate as more kids age-in with no exposure at ALL to over the air radio, having received all their content from the internet or satellite.

Literally everyone I know listens to satellite radio, music on their phones, or stream content to their car. That trend is accelerating, not declining. And yes, I know the whole US isn't advancing at the same rate, but that's the trendline. Fighting it is futile.

I listen to the radio 2x a day.

I start my truck.

I click on Station Mem1 and it's AC/DC

I click on Mem2 and it's Metallica

I click on Mem3 and it's Queen or G&R

I click on Mem4 and it's somebody talking about farting on their girlfriend.

I finally click on my SD card and listen to some music that is not 40-50 years old.

I repeat the process on my way home.....

Sure, it all depends on local laws and the climate. The Seattle Pinball Museum seems to work it quite well, it's all ages, it doesn't have a bar vibe at all, but you can buy bottles and cans of beer and wine at the front desk. Dads can have a beer or two while playing games for a few hours with their kids and groups of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s can come and have some beers and play pinball. They do it without much investment in the bar side. But yeah, all depends on where you live, the laws, the market. We have 10 barcades to compete with that are packed nightly, along with dozens more bars with 6 or more pins, so having drinks helps them compete.

Different strokes for different folks I guess, our Seattle Pinball Museum feels very family friendly and sells bottles of beer.

Why don't you think pinball leagues bring in money? Bars her specifically put in enough games to host league nights to help fill up their bars on dead nights. The players all pay to play plus they all tend to buy a lot of drinks.

"Radio is the third most powerful medium in the United States, reaching 54 percent of the country’s population daily. In comparison, over 75 percent are reached by television, while social media accounts for 45.7 percent. Online radio is playing an increasing role in the radio market, with an estimated 61 percent of the U.S. population listening to online radio in 2017." -statista.com

http://variety.com/2017/music/news/traditional-radio-faces-a-grim-future-new-study-says-1202542681/

What???????

You got to get out and see the world outside the Puritanical States of America.

Monasteries in Europe brew beer and sell it in a paper cup off the side of the chapel.

Vending machines sell beer and good wholesome people enjoy it on the tram as they ride home to their families after work.

MacDonald's sells beer and wine.

Jesus himself made wine.

C'mon man!

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Since you mentioned our pinball museum in Asheville I have a few points. It started small, a few years ago expanded into a much larger space, and this year opened a second smaller location. Last time I was there on a Tuesday afternoon it was filled to capacity and had a waiting line within 2 hours after opening. I advise folks to never go on a weekend, there is always a wait and patrons don't get in at a times. I'm guessing TC (the owner) has close to 100 or more customers go through on a weekend day.

We are a tourist town. Absolutely booming especially with all of the breweries that have opened in the last 5 years. Over the past 2 years all of the high end hotel chains (Mariott, Hilton, etc) have opened new hotels down town, there are at least 4 more now under construction. Multiple B&Bs that are sold out all the time. TC does not have to advertise, he has no gimmicks. If you have not visited his business I highly suggest you make a road trip to see how amazing it is.

No one has ever seen a McDonalds franchise fail. Because they don't build them without understanding and researching the local demographics, and markets.

I hate to say it, but if you are getting 5 - 10 customers at a time no amount of gimmicks or advertising will increase your volume that much. I suspect you are just in an area without enough foot traffic.
But I wish you the best if you decide to pursue it further.

Seattle pinball museum is 17.00 just to walk in the door if I recall, they are also right next to the Amtrak Station and plenty of great food options.