You have another job. I don't.

I'm open. Provide disinfectant wipes to anyone wanting them here.

And I'll keep an eye on things here. The severity of it. Or if the government closes businesses.

Any amount of time closed would be the end of my business.

LTG

Its very scary. Im in the same boat, a forced closure would end me.

Sorry, I meant no offense.

Everybody has their own realities to face.

LTG : )

OMG please dont get me started about how the feds gave away billions to the banks only to have them turn around and not help anyone facing mortgage foreclosure or any other relief to the american taxpayer.. where did all those billions go? Im guessing in the pockets of the wall street fat cats.

If there is a closure. Im bankrupt pure and simple.

There will be no meaningful help in time to make my bills.

If you close it will only be a temporary measure, you can come back

I have had to close my business for the last 4 months due to medical issues
I will bounce back

My basement remains open but my kids prefer Roblox.

Our pinball spot we play at just announced that they too will close until further notice.

It's got to be tough, and I sincerely wish everyone that faces this the best of luck.

-Paul

Good luck guys.
Rough road ahead for a lot of people.

Hopefully the people you have to pay bills to will show some leniency. Might need the government to step in and limit all the outrageous late fees and sky high interest that credit card companies normally would charge. I’m glad I have my tax refund to help me get through it because my work depends on imports from China and a good economy.

I have a Pro shop inside a 48 lane bowling center. I had a total of 4 customers come in the shop yesterday.
The bowling center had a total of 7 people bowling. We usually have all 48 lanes running at 9am Saturday.

I save every penny I make all winter to get me thru the summer months. Not sure if I’ll make it thru summer this year if this continues and I have been in this location for 20 years.

This really sucks, for everybody - at the very least its making me want to visit the arcade next time we are in Charlottesville. Fingers crossed for the rest of the folks; so much uncertainty right now

Lloyd, and others.....

If it comes to the point of being forced to close. Maybe you could sell some pre-paid gift cards here on pinside? I have friends in the Twin Cities and I would be happy to buy them some gift cards for when this whole thing blows over. It wouldn't need to be anything fancy. Almost like redeeming a paypal receipt when they arrive.

I definitely want to find a way to help support local arcades that may run into issues from lack of business and/or closures.

My family and I spent the entire afternoon yesterday at a local arcade. We had a great time and by late afternoon the place was packed. People are more sick about the panic versus the actual virus. Imagine all of these kids with all of this newly found free time. Having a fun outlet is going to be good for them.

I'm playing in a small tournament today at a public location. I want to do what I can to support them until things get worse in our area(central Alabama). I'm glad that our ten week league season just wrapped up so I'm not forced to have to make the decision to cancel or not. I also really hope our location(BumperNets) can survive this. They are in a large shopping mall with very high rent. They do also have an online retail store so hopefully that will cushion the blow.

We just had our grand opening of the Olympia Pinball Museum two weeks ago. Now we are closed temporarily. After our governor said all schools will be closed from now till April 24th, our business dropped like a rock. On Friday the 13th we had a grand total of one customer all day. Everyone around here in Olympia is in "panic mode" and at the stores emptying the store shelves of toilet paper and sanitizer. You wouldn't believe how crowded the stores were yesterday at 8 am. It was just like Black Friday at the Lacey (Washington) Fred Meyer store. Every single register (they have 20 regular and 8 self check) was open and with tons of people in line.

Fortunately, our grand opening at the museum brought in enough money to "weather the storm" for about three months. Granted, nobody likes to be closed, but I think we will be ok.

I just started a new job Friday... if the panic and loss of spending affect our company, I will be the first to go.

Be smart but keep spending!

I like your thinking.

As entrepreneurs we have to get creative. Until we adjust to a new normal, people are going to stay home. Some ideas:

-Live stream from arcade for people to watch at home, q&a with hosts/proprietors
-Offer your patrons the opportunity to buy in advance/gift cards as stated above
-"Leave a credit on the machine" for needy groups. Ie: I can make a donation that will be used for at-risk youth to have fun, when things are more calm.
-Paid phone support to have an expert help me fix a problem I have on my machine
-T-shirt designs and merch for sale on print-on-demand sites (You only need to upload your artwork)
-Private bookings for party. Since the arcade is so quiet, why not offer to allow a group to book it exclusively. ie: You and your family come for 2 hours. The place will be completely sanitized before, during and after. You won't share it with anyone else other than who came with you.
-"Get out of the house" promotions.

There's so much we do not know right now with regard to this thing that everyone is literally flying blind, but being driven in their actions by that which they can see.

Example -- Ohio's public health director said the other day she believes there are "100,000" infected in Ohio. Ok, if I accept that then knowing what we know about the R0 of the virus and the generation time (both of which we have reasonable estimates of from Wuhan's published data, along with others) we can run the geometric series *backward* with nothing more than math and we find that close to 10,000 people in Ohio both have had it *and* are beyond the point where they will seek medical attention or have a bad outcome (e.g. die.)

Now people say the CFR (fatality rate) is ~2%, 1%, whatever. Uh, nope. See, "case" is defined by people they know about. If there are 100 "cases" and 2 people die, that's a 2% CFR. But if there are *ten thousand two hundred cases*, well, then it's 0.02%!

So which is it?

We don't know. If it's 2% it's very bad. If it's 0.02% it's less than the seasonal flu -- by a fair bit. But until we have the science, we will not know.

Is it prudent for governments to lock things down? Well, you don't want to be wrong on the 2% side, that's for sure. But does stripping the store shelves bare make sense? Not likely, no matter where on that continuum we eventually find out this thing lies. And by the way, if you crowd into the store to strip the shelves bare that's sort of the exact opposite of social distancing, isn't it? Oops.

One thing we do know for sure -- if you're compromised in terms of health this bug is nasty if you get it. Then again so is the seasonal flu; it's killed something close to 20,000 people in the US thus far this season, and that there's nothing that is even partially effective in terms of a vaccine doesn't help, especially for folks in that situation.

Essential facts are missing right now, but this much is always certain when it comes to ANY business: Leverage is dangerous, and projections based on never having some sort of interruption, whether just a general recession or an event like this, are unwise.

Best of luck to everyone out there.....

Getting close. Minnesota governor is closing all schools this coming Wednesday.

LTG : )

Stay open.. people will be looking for things to do until they forbid local travel. Then move to a state that doesn't practice as much idiocy. I wish I could go just pick up the virus and process it. Many of us may have already. There is absolutely zero reason to believe any of the gov's pseudo-science and stats. The first "Montana Presumptive Positive" was a woman who had been out of the state since November and never back.

It's 100% bullshit and nothing more than a "stronger than average" common cold virus. Corona viruses are common and prevalent. There is really nothing to fear if you are under 60 and in good health. In July, we are going to be laughing at the fools just like the Y2K nonsense most of us remember.

My local haunt has no plans on closing and the owner has multiple ventures outside of pinball and video games.

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This is something I definitely struggled with. I don't rely on my route for income and just use the money to buy more machines and parts. A shutdown only means I probably won't buy the next title at the worst. Unfortunately the locations where the games reside do count on the machines to draw traffic thru the door. Those workers and the owners are relying on the income from the business to survive.

The governor of Ohio showed this graph yesterday. They are recommending social distancing to flatten the curve. The expoential curve is where they expect it to be if we do nothing and the flattened curve is due to social distancing. The scary part is the black dotted line which is hospital capacity.
I want to do my part by shutting down but can't do it in good conscience at this time.
IMG_20200314_145007_01_01.jpg

Yes, don’t get started. Who did the banks loan billions of dollars to that caused all the foreclosures which caused the credit derivative fiasco? Anybody a mortgage broker found with a pulse. How did that happen? The government..
Watch the American Greed shows on mortgage scams- billions went into local economies from people that scammed system- including Wall Street fat cats.

Time to trot out my old Official Memberships in the SS Billiards fan club. Limited number available. Don't delay.

Don't worry about me. I've never known anything except get back up when you get knocked down. This is just another f*ck up the a** I'll have to get through.

LTG : )

I think if the shutdowns aren't mandatory, arcades will be busy. I can't believe how people are falling for all this nonsense. I thought people learned a little from 911. I guess it's more fun to act emotionally than to honestly assess reality.

Every situation is different. A love affair, a war, a depression. They don't always follow the rules of the last one.

The 1929 depression people saved wrapping paper and string. They didn't do that in 2005's downturn.

LTG : )

So much wrong here I could write a book. What you are saying is dangerous and will lead to people getting hurt.

In the meantime read and reflect on Italy.

Just like it's more fun to live in complete denial than accept what's going on.

Are we having fun yet?

Well, I am an engineer by training, and we rarely get panned for acting emotionally.

In my career, I have done very well in doing data analysis and projecting trends.

I can say, without a doubt, the data does not support your position.

From both an analytical (analyzing peer-reviewed data) and empirical (Italy, Singapore, South Korea... Wuhan) evidence I don't see how people can continue to downplay the situation. One of my favorite quotes is that math doesn't lie.

Take your panic with you. Are you asking for a bailout already? Boomer..

Your deference to authority was never addressed in technical coursework. It's the common cold, duh, it doesn't even affect kids. But all your hysteria should make for some large government pork and a pile of draconian rules that help no one and in fact kill more than the virus due to financial/family strain of lost income. I'm sorry I offended any of you gullible news consumers.

I spent 35 years in Medical research. One of my favorite sayings is:
“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics”

However I agree that this flu should not be taken lightly. Keep yourself and others as safe as possible.

How many months will you do that?

I told my friend yesterday the entire world might be shutting down, but my garage arcade will remain open.

So are manufacturing, construction, financial services, oil & gas, import/export...essential? You are suggesting the Gov’t put 10’s of millions out of work, and that they can somehow prop it all up. This would cause huge harm, including many unintended medical consequences. I certainly understand shutting down schools, entertainment venues and other gathering spots, maybe even restaurants and malls, and greatly increasing testing, but it could be devastating to shutter the bulk of the world’s largest economy. (Also, the NYT and Newsweek are far from the “bottom line” for many.)

Eh, you aren't as helpful as you think. If you couldn't prescribe scips for opioids and anti-biotics, you'd be out of business. Do you personally know a single healthy person under 60 this virus has killed? No.

First of all.. I am a heck of a lot closer to a millennial than a boomer. Second, I personally offered to help financially support arcades that are struggling. Kinda the opposite of asking for a bailout.