That's what's been on my mind. It seems everyone is getting trained to be a permanent germaphobe. Part of me thinks it could completely kill location pinball (and arcades) again.

Only in reno of course!

I think i will be ok if they close my reno store.

My sparks store will stay open as its a computer repairs essential service!

So as of this afternoon i think im saved.

Whew!

Its a scary time.

The opposite could occur, which I think is far worse. If this doesn't get 'horrible' (regardless if it is because of action taken, or it simply isn't that bad), then people are going to say this was overblown, and the next time (and there will be a next time) no one at all will take it serious.

I mean, we ban nuts due to allergies. We ban smoking because second hand smoke. etc etc. This really is just another form of those in the end. Until we know more about this than the people stating 'it's just flu', human safety is the priority.

As others have mentioned i do not have pandrmic virus protection on my insurance.

No rider means they wont pay.

Thanks. Insurance company!

Was it even an option before now?

Ken a few years ago when I lived in Gig Harbor, there was a guy who was collecting games to open some sort of pinball museum between Portland and Tacoma along I-5 somewhere (I don't recall where). I sold a Gottlieb Vulcan to him. Did another museum open too, or does this ring a bell?

This. People are stupid. If the healthcare system is able to handle the load people are going to be like "see, it was overblown we didn't need to do anything" and if the healthcare system gets overrun the same people will be saying "not enough was done by the government to protect us". There is literally no way to do the right amount in the minds of the people.

Things have been interesting so far. A little over two days into closed.

I'm here anyway for tech support, and though closed, trying to keep similar hours so I don't mess up my noon to midnight schedule.

Tech support has been light. With people staying home, I thought it would be busier. Scammer phone calls are about normal. A fair amount of people calling to see if I'm open. Apparently not everyone knows that most businesses were shut down by the state. They seem surprised or don't believe me ?

I vacuumed the pool tables yesterday, they will need recovering this year, and started mopping the winter off of the floor. A slow process.

My dog is confused. She doesn't know what happened to all her fans and chest rubs. She's barking at people more, trying to get them in I think.

Been a few inquiries if I'm selling any machines yet. Several offers to run gofundme's for me. And several have paypal'd me money, which I have no way to retrieve it. So I hope they get it back eventually. Otherwise I'm involved in a gofundme for paypal.

I'm hoping to be back open soon and I hope everyone stays health and safe, their loved ones too.
LTG : )

Wife had a guy come into her place today that claimed to have no knowledge before today about what was going on. I almost envy him if true.

Someone brought up a very good point that I think many, including myself hadn't really thought out. We probably WON'T get a vaccine that is effective if it is found that this mutates regularly. The assumption is it will just take time, but for as much as we know about the flu, it isn't always effective. This will probably be similar in that fashion.

The ones that have contacted me. Don't bother me. After all I have posted about it recently. I've done it in the past. And is a possibility if things don't get better now.

They weren't gathering like vultures, were offering help. And if I decide to sell anything, they have interest.

I do agree if they came at me like clearing off the carcass, then I'd feel different.
LTG : )

Based on the Senate draft of the bill:

It looks like people who owe money on their taxes for 2019 don't have to pay until 7/15.

Estimated taxes for 2020 don't have to pay until 10/15

Business portion of payroll taxes (FICA) for 2020 are due half 12/31/21 (almost 2 years from now) and half due 12/31/22 (almost 3 years from now).

Also seems to be something relating to being able to tap your 401k that I don't fully grasp all of it yet. Probably can withdraw without a penalty up to $100k.

Prayers going out to you papa LGT,Hang in there and stay strong.

I feel so so bad for all the small business impacted. Honestly why can Walmart stay open but we fire waiters? This is really hurting a lot of people. I hope every one of you guys who close down can recover!!!

Pulling for everyone!

Yes that is sad and unfair in many ways,Stay strong fellas!

We have been closed going on 6 days at Starport Arcade and Pub.

My route is about 90%+ closed at this time. 197 of 211 spots not operational.

The hardest part for me is I'm likely going to have to stop paying some of our essential staff. Some people have worked with us for 16+ years. I've been in business for 17 years myself. 18 years as of July. I told my accountant today I think I want to go down with the ship. I'm just hoping to not have to make the decision to cease operations because I love our customers and care about the families we support. Not just my own families and staff but the staff at all the bars and restaurants, FEC's, all the way to just the small convenience stores.

I do appreciate all the business from our friends on pinside. Miss seeing some of ya at Helicon Brewing or Starport.

If you want to support our efforts in anyway with the purchase of our merchandise that we have left in stock, here is a link. We are using the money to keep people employed as long as possible.

https://starport-arcade-and-pub.square.site/

Thanks again all! I hope you are well and I hope to have future endeavors that involve us having fun together again!

My locations and barcade are all locked down since a week now. Our government has announced that it offers a helping hand for at least three months for all closed business owners without personel by providing a max net amount of 1500 euro a month, no need to payback afterwards. Further are taxes postponed if needed, and interest-free loans available to keep afloat. All companies with staff, who choose or are forced to send them home , get 90% of the wages covered so 10% has to be paid by the employer.
I am happy with these provisions, and hope it will not take too long.

I know it sounds crazy, but I think rather than 'send a check to everyone' they should just suspend money as a requirement for a period of time. Shutter everything that is not essential, and basically everyone that must work, work for free and the government cover THOSE costs (for medical, utilities, groceries, basic needs). Once it is determined that we can go back to normal, put it back in place just as it was before this happened. No one loses a business, no one loses a job, no one owes anything more than they did before this crisis. Everyone just returns to what they were doing. Just hit pause.

For operators who don't want to sell their games off right away, I saw some arcades around the US renting their games out on a monthly basis. If you can rent your games out to collectors you trust, it's not the worst way to minimize losses while we all go through this troubling time. I know I wouldn't mind tossing a few hundred at a Chicagoland area arcade to help out and have a new game to play for a month or two.

I would definitely rent a game to help someone out.

This has been covered here :

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rental

Myself. I wouldn't do it. No way of knowing if you are delivering it to a house with infected people or not. Or if you spread it and they trace it to you.

LTG : )

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/coronavirus-retailers-grapple-with-closed-stores-and-paying-rent.html

I get the point you were trying to make but....yeah, no it's not. I don't really want to start a whole other discussion but I'll dumb it down to the fact that nobody is throwing anywhere near the amount of resources at peanut allergy as gets thrown at anti-smoking and epidemics, and that stupid ass shit like teachers intentionally feeding or using peanuts in their classrooms even when they've been told about a student's severe allergy.....still don't get fired in a lot of cases? Even though they send a kid to the ER?

Yeah. It's not the same.

Glad you get the point, and no they are not the exact same. What you seem to be missing is the 'we don't know enough about it' and 'it spreads quickly and easily' part. If it didn't kill anyone, there probably wouldn't have been the reaction to it. Since it is actually a perfect storm of potentially bad mojo, they want to stop it before it has a chance (even if it may not actually be as bad as thought) to find out if it is. I guarantee you, no one in power in this country wanted to do what we are doing.

Oh no, I get that. My wife is still working retail and covering for people that took the out they were given to not work. She's at risk for complications for several factors as well. 75% of my office is out, and we CAN'T work from home, but again...our employer gave us an out...I just have SOME sense of ethics, and I'm still mostly working (tomorrow will be my first day out, most of my coworkers have already been out for 5 days, and there's at least 1 case I know of that the guy does NOT meet *any* of the conditions to be out!).... I still plan to work 2 days a week, even though I technically have 4 weeks of leave available to me right now. I work for a major telco. It's a shitshow, but even still, the only reason I'm taking any time is because my kids won't have supervision otherwise.

We go NOWHERE. Nobody except a close friend of ours (who also goes nowhere other than work (where he has no contact with anyone else because he works in a datacenter) comes into our place right now. I'm laughing at all these fools falling over themselves for toilet paper, because I finally broke down and bought a bidet attachment for our toilet like 6 months ago.

We're on the same side. We should all be on the same side, really, but "MURICA MEANS FREEDOM", ya know... people are going to do what they're going to do. I can't control that, but I can control our exposure.

i dont own an arcade, however i do own an indoor NERF battle arena, that does birthdays and is pretty busy most weekends. but we to have had to shut down. it sucks, but its what is needed, so i just sold some pins out of my personal collection to pay my employees and other things during this time.

How is the Coinopwarehouse even still open now, shouldn’t they be closed too?

I'm glad you know the motivations of everyone whom rules over you. For me, I believe a lot of people want exactly what is going on.. a complete shutdown of the economy. The bankers needed it because the banks failed over the last week (as evidenced by the over-prescribed discount window activity) and the never-trumpers see it as an attack vector (as evidenced by the attacks when the incoming flights from China were banned and constant focus on the COVID-19 test fairy's absence).

Now this isn't a political post. It's a response to naivety.

This is why it’s hard to get the buy in early on. I believe that’s why local governments had to implement the lockdowns to make a point about the seriousness.

It’s a sad day when I’m thinking less about the lost revenue and plummeting asset values And more about if my insurance covers theft and vandals during an “act of god”!

This is conspiracy theory at its finest.

I dont think rioting and looting is an act of God. It may be caused by something considered an act of God.
When it comes to life, it usually comes down to 3 things. The right way, the wrong way, and the legal way. If your insurance company can find a legal way not to pay you, you are screwed.

You know this has been a contrived retort to uncomfortable truths since Johnson/Bush assassinated JFK. I guess it still works for a few.

I’m back from my ban hiatus to wish Lloyd and the rest of you guys my best.

It’s sad to see so much economic destruction. I went to order pick up from a local place I go to lunch to several times a week, mostly college kids as servers but one older lady that’s been there quite a while and depends on tips wasn’t sure how she was gonna make it or not.

Remember to over tip whatever you can for these people and other service folks

This can NOT go on for more than a few weeks

I've been doing the same thing. 50-100% tip.

Glad to see your triumphant return my friend !

In other news : Around 5 days of captivity. Not going crazy. Yet. Cleaning continues. Getting rid of the winter build up. Have concluded scrubbing and mopping 1800 square feet of floor sucks. Only way to accomplish this amazing feat would be sitting on a chair. Having an ice cold beer. And watching someone else do it. Front third left and a patch up the middle and out the back door. I'm dead. Might not accomplish much more today. Tech support is real slow. Maybe more people playing games and less people modding them or trying to fix them ? Prada is in the dumps. She really misses her fans. She doesn't understand what happened to her world. I should have gotten one of those riding hard floor cleaners years ago when times were good. I'd be done in fifteen minutes, if I didn't crash into anything.

LTG : )

I just stopped by one of my locations trying to hang on by doing carry out only. Ended up putting my games on freeplay for the skeleton crew to play. Feel bad for all the service workers. Now they have pinball to pass the slow hours between lunch and dinner.

You gotta live up to your name